Bidspirit auction | 1855 Chelsea Massachusetts Mortgage Deed

1855 Chelsea Massachusetts Mortgage Deed Ezekiel Dow to Mellen Chamberlain Trustee - This original mid-19th-century legal document is a mortgage deed executed on September 24, 1855, and recorded on September 25, 1855, in the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds. The document records a transaction for the sum of twelve hundred dollars between Ezekiel Dow of Chelsea, Massachusetts, as the grantor, and Mellen Chamberlain, acting as trustee for a specific list of Dow's creditors. The named creditors include James Hardin, John T. Hadaway, Lord and Frost, William Sargent, Slade Perkins, Buck and Russell, Roberts, James Spier, Langman and Cutter, Thomas H. Carruth, L. J. Baily, Luther Townson, Suther Jerry, and Wade. The real estate is described as being situated at the corner of Shawmut and Maverick Streets in Chelsea. The document is composed on a printed form from stationer C. B. Darling, No. 15 Exchange Street, with extensive handwritten legal text in iron gall ink. Signatures include Ezekiel Dow, Elizabeth Dow (releasing her right of dower), Samuel Orcutt as Justice of the Peace and witness, Harriette A. Dow as witness, and J. Henry Alline as Register of Deeds. The document features an intact white paper seal over a red wax wafer adjacent to the primary signatures. Mellen Chamberlain (1821–1900), the named trustee, was a notable Massachusetts judge, state representative, and Librarian of the Boston Public Library. The reverse side contains additional docketing in ink and pencil, including a recording entry for Lib. 687, Folio 134. 17 inches x 10.5 inches.