Plowden Family Papers(1671–1773, 1872)

• MS 2005.8
• 14 items

Series of documents related to the 18th-century legal claim made by James Plowden to a tract of land in Maryland that had been bought from a Richard Perry by George and Thomas Plowden in 1684. The documents, copies of relevant letters and legal documents, probably transcribed by Plowden’s attorney John Mansfield, show the ownership of the land or parts of it to pass through several hands. A copy of a 1674 Maryland law respecting land transactions as well as documented instances of the same provide an idea of the process in the middle colonies at the time. These papers are an addition to the Clifford Lewis III Research Collection (MS 2000.99).

The Plowden Family descends from Sir Edmund Plowden (1590–July 1659 in Lydbury, Shropshire, England), an explorer and colonial governor who attempted to colonize North America in the mid-17th century under a grant for a colony to be named New Albion.

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