1847 Maine Handwritten Quitclaim Deed Benjamin Porter to Leander Poor Sebago For Sale

This document is a handwritten property deed, a quitclaim deed executed in Sebago, Cumberland County, Maine, on the fifteenth day of September, 1847, transferring a parcel of land from Benjamin Porter to Leander Poor. The manuscript is entirely rendered in a legible cursive script, a common practice for legal instruments of the antebellum period before the widespread adoption of printed forms. The deed opens with the formal legal phrase “Know all Men by these Presents,” establishing the contractual nature of the instrument. Benjamin Porter, identified as a “Gentleman” of Andover, Maine, conveys the land to Leander Poor, also a “Gentleman,” of Sebago, for the sum of one hundred and eighty dollars. The document meticulously describes the property’s boundaries, including references to a “middle square lot,” a road leading to Abraham Poor’s land, and a fifty-acre portion of “lot number one on the first range,” employing the metes and bounds system typical of rural land transactions in early New England.The deed includes a standard clause of general warranty, wherein Porter covenants to “warrant and forever defend the premises” against any lawful claims. A distinctive feature is the inclusion of Sarah Porter, Benjamin’s wife, who signs to formally relinquish her right of dower in the property, a common legal practice to ensure a clear and unencumbered title transfer. The document is dated and signed by both Benjamin and Sarah Porter, with the notation “their hands and seals” indicating the formal execution of the agreement. This artifact offers a tangible connection to the commercial and legal life of mid-nineteenth-century rural Maine, documenting a straightforward property transaction between two local gentlemen. The precise boundary descriptions and the inclusion of the dower release provide a detailed snapshot of land ownership customs, legal formalities, and the social structures of a small agricultural community in Cumberland County during the 1840s.