1780 Medfield MA Deed Capt Ezekiel Plimpton Morse Spanish Dollars 11½ Acres For Sale

1780 Revolutionary War Era Massachusetts Land Deed – Eliakim Morse to Capt. Ezekiel Plimpton – Medfield / Medway – Spanish Milled Dollars

Offered here is an original handwritten land deed dated April 15, 1780, executed in Medfield, Massachusetts, during the height of the American Revolutionary War.

This document records the conveyance of approximately 11½ acres of upland in Medway from Eliakim Morse (1712–1803), a longtime Medfield landowner and member of one of the town’s early founding families, to Ezekiel Plimpton (1748–1817), a Medfield farmer and Revolutionary War militia captain.

The transaction was made for the sum of seven Spanish milled dollars, a highly desirable reference to hard currency in early American commerce during a period of wartime inflation and economic uncertainty.

This deed represents a well-documented transfer within a tightly connected network of early Massachusetts families:

• Ezekiel Plimpton, the grantee, was the son of Simon Plimpton, whose land is explicitly listed as the northern boundary in the deed—confirming a direct father-son landholding relationship.
• Plimpton’s mother, Ruth Morse, connects the Plimpton and Morse families, suggesting this transaction occurred within an extended kinship network.
• The deed is witnessed by Cynthia Clark (b. 1764) and Catharine Clark (b. 1762), sisters from a Medfield family whose land also borders the parcel. Notably, Cynthia Clark later married into the Morse family, further reinforcing these local ties.
• Additional neighboring landowners include David Clark, Jonathan Adams, and the heirs of John Harding, all established names in the Medfield–Medway region.

Together, these details provide a rare, traceable snapshot of a living 18th-century New England community.

• Date: April 15, 1780
• Location: Medfield / Medway, Massachusetts (then Suffolk County)
• Grantor: Eliakim Morse (1712–1803), yeoman
• Grantee: Ezekiel Plimpton (1748–1817), husbandman, Revolutionary War militia captain
• Acreage: Approximately 11½ acres
• Payment: Seven Spanish milled dollars
• Witnesses: Catharine Clark and Cynthia Clark
• Boundaries: Simon Plimpton, David Clark, heirs of John Harding, Jonathan Adams

• Original 18th-century manuscript on laid paper
• Clear, legible iron gall ink
• Typical fold lines from storage
• Age toning and light edge wear consistent with period
• Partial original wax seal present

• ✔ Revolutionary War-era document (1780)
• ✔ Named militia officer (Capt. Ezekiel Plimpton)
• ✔ Spanish milled dollars referenced
• ✔ Fully traceable family network (Morse, Plimpton, Clark, Adams)
• ✔ Father-son land boundary confirmed within the deed
• ✔ Female witnesses identified and documented

This is more than a land deed—it is a fully attributable historical artifact capturing property transfer, family structure, and economic life in Revolutionary-era Massachusetts.

• Will be carefully packaged and protected
• Shipped flat with archival support
• Please review all photos for condition