From the introduction:
The publication of Westmoreland County Deeds and Wills No. 7 is long overdue. It fills an important gap between the work of John Frederick Dorman, who stopped with Deeds and Wills No. 6 (1716-1720) and the work of Ruth and Sam Sparacio, who began with Deeds and Wills No. 8 (1723-1738.)
In its official title, Deeds and Wills No. 7 purports to cover the years 1720-1722, but this is misleading. It covers the period 1719-1723, with fourteen documents recorded in 1711 thrown in for good measure.
The record book comprises 359 pages, all written in the fine hand of County Clerk Thomas Sorrell. The county clerk had many duties, and recording land and probate records was one of the most important of these. However, Sorrell was a busy man, which is shown by the non-chronological order in which these were set down to record. A good example of this is the county levies for 1721 and 1722: the levy for 1722 is recorded on page 135, while the levy for 1721 is recorded on page 248.
In Appendix A, I have created an expanded General Index to the principal parties to events. This was deemed important since the original index was lost when the record book was refurbished in 2012. (See notes on page 52 for more information on this.)
In Appendix B, I have taken a new approach with the every-name index to this book—and one that I hope frequent users of the typical books of this nature will appreciate. The index in Appendix B is not just an every-name index, it is an every-event index. The net result is a much longer index but a much faster reference to what role a particular person played in a particular record before flipping to the page to find out.
The index in Appendix B also includes names of all slaves named in this record book, as well as a list of all place names. These are, unsurprisingly, indexed under “Slave” and “Place Name”.
Craig M. Kilby
2013
107-WSD7
