Duplin County was established by the N.C. Colonial Assembly in 1750; however it is not know what became of the county’s property records that were recorded between 1750 and 1753. Completion of this project means that Sampson County’s earliest property records are also being made available since Sampson County was a part of Duplin until 1784.
These early property records contain invaluable information and reference material for those performing historical and genealogical research. The recently released documents include not only the deeds from between 1753 and 1784, but also the recorded bills of sale for personal property; bonds; estate divisions; mortgages; land grants; powers of attorney; wills; and various miscellaneous documents.
The earliest record is a deed of three hundred acres from Patrick Canaday to Henry Bird dated September 1, 1753. There are numerous deeds from Henry McCulloh, Esq. who was a very prominent figure in Colonial North Carolina history. McCulloh, a London merchant, speculated heavily in land in the New World including over 71,000 acres in present day Duplin and Sampson Counties which he had received from the English Crown. Other interesting instruments which can be researched include deeds and grants executed by Royal Governors Gabriel Johnston, Matthew Rowan, and Arthur Dobbs, as well as, land records of many of Duplin and Sampson counties most prominent figures in its early history such as James Kenan, Thomas Kenan, James Gillespie, Daniel Glisson, John Sampson, and Richard Clinton.
The endeavor took several months and was completed in two phases. The first phase was the digitization of the original handwritten deed books. Digitization is a process through which microfilm of the original paper documents is converted by a document imaging system to a computer file format which enables them to be made viewable via a computer screen. Once the digitization was completed, the second phase of the project involved the creating of a computer index so that the records could be retrieved by searchers. Brinson created a computerized index from the original handwritten indexes by painstakingly checking each individual index entry against the actual handwritten documents for accuracy and completeness.
These records from between 1753 and 1784 were not available to the citizens of Duplin County for 175 years after Duplin County was split in order to create Sampson County in 1784. It seems that when the counties divided the public records of Duplin County were also divided with Sampson getting all of the property records in the form of eight deed books and Duplin receiving all of the court minutes, wills, and records of estates. There is no definitive evidence as to why this division of records occurred as it did. However, it has been widely speculated that it most likely occurred because at the time the counties were divided Richard Clinton was Register of Deeds and William Dickson was the Clerk of Court.
With the recent release of the pre-1784 records, the Duplin County Register of Deed office becomes one of the first counties in the state to post images of colonial North Carolina real property records and the only county to allow a full computerized search of such records. “I’ve always tried to make Duplin County’s Register of Deeds Office one of the most innovative and progressive Register of Deeds offices in the state,” Brinson said.
FMI visit rod.duplincounty.org. FMI call Brinson at 910-296-2108 or via email at dbrinson@duplincountync.com.
Post a Comment
