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1860 Philadelphia Vellum Indenture – David Newport & Susan Satterthwaite Newport to Edwin Satterthwaite – Quaker Family Estate – Barring an Entail – Northern Liberties
Original September 29, 1860, Pennsylvania manuscript deed executed to bar an entailed estate under the Act of January 16, 1799. Large-format historical legal document measuring approximately 21 × 25 inches, featuring elaborate Gothic calligraphy, original signatures, applied seals, and official Philadelphia court endorsements.
An impressive pre-Civil War Pennsylvania legal manuscript documenting the inheritance and conveyance of historic Philadelphia real estate associated with the Newport and Satterthwaite families of Montgomery County.
Unlike an ordinary property sale, this deed was specifically executed \"To Bar an Entail,\" extinguishing hereditary restrictions on real estate that had descended through the Newport family under an 1823 will.
The document preserves an extensive chain of property ownership dating to 1820, references Pennsylvania\'s landmark 1799 property legislation, and records a formal proceeding before the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
Its combination of legal history, family genealogy, Philadelphia real estate history, and exceptional manuscript presentation makes it a desirable example of nineteenth-century American documentary material.
Document Details
Date: September 29, 1860
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Document type: Manuscript indenture / deed to bar an entail
Material: Large period parchment or vellum
Dimensions: Approximately 21 × 25 inches
Grantors: David Newport and wife Susan S. Newport
Grantee: Edwin One dollar, nominal
Legal authority: Pennsylvania Act of January 16, 1799
Property: Brick dwelling and lot on Delaware Second Street, Philadelphia
Property dimensions: 20 feet frontage by 120 feet depth
Court: Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas
Recording reference: Sheriff\'s Deed Book V, Page 160
Features: Original manuscript signatures, applied seals, decorative heading, court endorsements, and reverse docketing
Historical Significance – Pennsylvania\'s Barring of Entails
The most important feature of this document is its explicit connection to the historic legal practice of barring an estate tail.
Under traditional English property law, an estate tail restricted the inheritance of real property to specified descendants of the original owner. Such arrangements were intended to preserve family estates across generations.
These hereditary restrictions could prevent descendants from freely selling or transferring property.
Pennsylvania\'s Act of January 16, 1799, established a procedure allowing owners to extinguish entailed interests through properly executed and recorded conveyances.
This document specifically states that its purpose was:
\"For the purpose of barring and destroying all estates tail in possession remainder or reversion.\"
The Newport deed illustrates the continued use of this procedure in 1860, shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War.
The instrument was entered among the official records of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in the manner prescribed for sheriff\'s deeds.
Importantly, this was not an ordinary sheriff\'s sale in 1860. The sheriff\'s deed recording procedure was part of the statutory process for eliminating the hereditary restrictions.
Property Description – Historic Northern Liberties, Philadelphia
The indenture concerns a brick messuage or tenement and accompanying lot situated along the east side of Delaware Second Street, continued, in Philadelphia\'s historic Northern Liberties district.
Delaware Second Street corresponds to present-day North 2nd Street.
The property measured approximately:
20 feet wide by 120 feet deep.
The deed also describes adjoining properties and rights associated with a shared passageway.
Historical neighboring property owners referenced in the instrument include Thomas Roper, York & Greenway, Andrew Watters, and the Proprietaries.
The location is associated with the historic Callowhill Street corridor, an area that underwent considerable industrial, transportation, and residential development during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The exact modern street address has not been established.
Remarkable Chain of Ownership – 1820 to 1860
One of the strongest historical aspects of the document is its detailed recital of earlier property ownership.
November 28, 1820 – Sheriff\'s Conveyance
The property was conveyed through an earlier sheriff\'s deed involving Sheriff John F. Mifflin and the elder David Newport, a wheelwright, following legal proceedings involving the property of David Grant.
March 10, 1823 – Newport Family Inheritance
David Newport, the elder, executed his last will and testament, providing for the property to descend to his grandson, also named David Newport.
September 29, 1860 – Barring of the Entail
The younger David Newport and his wife Susan executed the present deed to Edwin Satterthwaite for nominal consideration of one dollar.
The stated purpose was to extinguish the estate tail inherited through the Newport family.
1860 – Court Recording
The conveyance was acknowledged and subsequently entered in the official Philadelphia court records, with reference to Sheriff\'s Deed Book V, Page 160.
The manuscript therefore documents approximately forty years of Philadelphia property history and references legal instruments reaching back to the early national period.
Biographical Profiles of the Principal IndividualsDavid Newport (Born December 18, 1822) – Grantor
David Newport was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and belonged to a family with deep roots in the Delaware Valley.
Biographical information associates him with farming, landownership, and religious ministry within the Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers.
His ancestry has been traced to Thomas Newport, an early colonial settler reportedly arriving in New Jersey from London around 1698.
The family maintained connections to Philadelphia and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Newport inherited the Philadelphia property through the will of his grandfather, also named David Newport, dated March 10, 1823.
The 1860 deed documents his efforts to remove hereditary restrictions on the inherited property.
His association with the Society of Friends adds a potentially important dimension to the document\'s family and regional history.
Susan Satterthwaite Newport – Grantor
Susan S. Newport, identified in genealogical information as Susan Satterthwaite, was the wife of David Newport.
Her participation in the conveyance is historically important because Pennsylvania property law required particular formalities when a married woman relinquished an interest in real estate.
The indenture includes a separate acknowledgment before Alderman J. Ranken, recording that she executed the instrument voluntarily and without coercion from her husband.
This feature provides an interesting example of nineteenth-century legal procedures governing married women\'s property rights.
Her Satterthwaite family connections also raise the possibility of a familial relationship with the deed\'s grantee, Edwin Satterthwaite.
Edwin Satterthwaite (1818–1904) – Grantee
Edwin Satterthwaite was a nineteenth-century Pennsylvania resident associated with Abington Township, Montgomery County.
The Satterthwaite family was among the established Quaker families of southeastern Pennsylvania.
Genealogical information identifies Edwin Satterthwaite as having lived from 1818 to 1904 and as being buried at Abington Friends Cemetery in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.
He was named as grantee in the September 29, 1860, indenture.
Because the conveyance involved nominal consideration and was expressly intended to bar an entail, his participation may have served a particular legal purpose rather than representing an ordinary commercial property purchase.
His exact relationship to Susan Satterthwaite Newport remains an interesting subject for additional genealogical research.
David Newport, the Elder – Grandfather and Former Property Owner
The elder David Newport was identified in the deed\'s historical chain of title as a wheelwright.
He acquired the Philadelphia property through an 1820 sheriff\'s conveyance and subsequently included it in his will dated March 10, 1823.
The will provided for the property\'s descent to his grandson, the David Newport who executed the present instrument in 1860.
His estate planning created the historical circumstances underlying the later deed.
John F. Mifflin – Sheriff in the 1820 Property Conveyance
John F. Mifflin is named in the deed\'s chain of title in connection with the sheriff\'s conveyance dated November 28, 1820.
His role was that of the public officer responsible for the earlier judicial property transfer.
The reference provides a link between the 1860 document and Philadelphia\'s earlier nineteenth-century judicial records.
David Grant – Former Property Owner
David Grant is identified in connection with the earlier judicial proceedings involving the property conveyed in 1820.
His appearance in the chain of title helps establish the ownership history preceding the Newport family\'s acquisition.
Additional Officials, Witnesses, and Historical Names
Alderman J. Ranken: Philadelphia magistrate responsible for taking the acknowledgment of David and Susan Newport, including the wife\'s separate examination.
W. F. Potts and John Potts: Witnesses associated with the execution of the indenture.
Thomas P. Potts: Attorney associated with the application to have the deed entered among the official court records.
J. O. Webb: Court clerk or recording official whose endorsement appears in connection with the deed\'s entry in the court records.
Judge Oswald Thompson: Philadelphia jurist identified in connection with the Court of Common Pleas proceedings.
Thomas Roper: Earlier adjoining property owner referenced in the legal boundary description.
York & Greenway: Names appearing in the description of neighboring property, preserving evidence of earlier ownership and development.
Andrew Watters: Historical adjoining landowner named in the property boundaries.
The Proprietaries: A historical landownership designation appearing in the property\'s boundary description, reflecting older Pennsylvania land-title terminology.
Original Signatures, Seals and Court Endorsements
The document retains numerous attractive original features, including:
Large decorative blackletter heading, \"This Indenture.\"
Extensive handwritten legal text.
Original signatures of David Newport and Susan Newport.
Surviving diamond-shaped paper-covered seals.
Witness signatures and acknowledgment.
Court endorsement referencing Sheriff\'s Deed Book V, Page 160.
Reverse docketing identifying the instrument\'s legal purpose.
The reverse bears the descriptive endorsement:
\"Deed / David Newport & wife / To / Edwin Satterthwaite / To Bar an entail.\"
The reverse also includes the notation \"Paid $2.00,\" apparently associated with administrative or recording costs.
Condition
Original nineteenth-century manuscript legal document measuring approximately 21 × 25 inches.
The manuscript displays attractive period calligraphy, age-related toning, original folds, scattered discoloration, and expected handling wear.
The original seals and extensive handwritten text remain important visual features.
Please review all photographs carefully for condition, completeness, signatures, folds, and seals.
Historical and Collecting Importance
This is an appealing example of pre-Civil War Pennsylvania legal history, combining several distinct collecting interests:
Early American property and inheritance law.
Pennsylvania\'s 1799 legislation concerning estates tail.
Philadelphia\'s historic Northern Liberties district.
Newport and Satterthwaite family genealogy.
Quaker family and community judicial and real estate records.
Historic Philadelphia property ownership and development.
Decorative legal manuscripts, original signatures, and seals.
An impressive original 1860 Philadelphia legal indenture preserving the history of an inherited family property, a specialized statutory procedure for extinguishing hereditary land restrictions, and the names of numerous individuals connected with early Pennsylvania landownership and legal practice.
A substantial and visually striking document for collectors of American manuscripts, Pennsylvania history, early property law, and Philadelphia historical material.
