[Contributed Story & Photos]
By TAMMY WELLS | York County Government media
ALFRED, Maine – The mark, drawn in ink, is a figure of a person with their arms thrust out from their sides, fingers on each hand spread wide. It is the mark of a man named Roles, described in a deed “the Sagamore of Newichawanuke.”
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The mark is affixed to a document showing the 1643 sale from Mr. Roles to Humphrey Chadbourne of “half a mile of ground” lying between the Little River and the Great River. An online Chadbourne genealogy shows the property is in what is present-day South Berwick. Three years later, Roles, said to be Wabanaki, also sold his fish weir at Little John Falls to Humphrey, but retained fishing rights for alewives there. The deeds were recorded in York County in 1649.
Those documents are among thousands – literally, thousands – at the historic York County Court House in Alfred, ranging from York County Commissioners records that contain a lot more information than meeting minutes, a vast amount of deeds and much, much more.
On a recent Thursday, about 20 people who had signed up for a courthouse tour through Marshwood Adult Education got to see some early documents – some dating to the mid-1600s like the Roles-Chadbourne transactions – and learn how they’re being carefully preserved for the future. They got to examine the stately second floor courtroom, toured the Registry of Deeds, and more.
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The free tour was the second of its kind – the first was held in October with Massabesic Adult and Community Education.
History buffs were delighted. And one attendee spoke of a personal mystery – he had been looking for the specific boundaries of his Kittery property but had so far been unsuccessful.
“We found the old historical deeds,” he said, but hadn’t been able to progress further, and surveyors, he noted “won’t touch it,” because of the expected complexities involved.
York County’s Records Management Specialist Andrew O’Neill noted that many early records, from deeds to documents laying out county roads and landmarks were often generic – an oak tree, a fence, a barn – all now lost to time.
Showing a copy of an 1800s map depicting the laying out of a road in Limerick and Cornish, O’Neill noted the road starts at “Gilpatrick’s house.”
“I’ve seen quite a few instances of a red house as a marker,” he said.
Recorded documents may include more than property sales. Plans for roadways, land development and later, subdivisions are also recorded here.
And in the early days, it wasn’t unheard of in rural York County for cattle and oxen to wander and end up on someone else’s property. The landowner would house and feed the animal – and record doing so with the Registry of Deeds, to aid in reimbursement when the animal’s owner was found.
Attendee Karen Benoit examined a book of plans – many were filed by the railroad companies in the 1800s as they expanded throughout various locales in York County, and said she and her husband thoroughly enjoyed the tour.
“We had visited the courthouse a few years ago to research the history of our house,” she said. “We signed up for this tour to get a refresher of the information available at the courthouse. We came away with so much more! I did not know about the maps and the census records. I thought there were only deeds.”
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Benoit said the knowledge and sincere interest in the court and its historic contents that O’Neill and Hammond conveyed was impressive.
Historian Danny Bottino, who completed his doctoral thesis on Maine deeds of the 17th century, was among those on the tour. Besides perusing the deeds, what did he like best?
“The courtroom is pretty cool,” he said of the vast space where justice was dispensed over many years.
The courtroom dates to 1934 – the central portion of the courthouse was destroyed by fire in February 1933 and rebuilt, opening the following year. All of the courtroom woodwork and furnishings date to the period. The doors are seven feet tall, and the tray ceiling rises more than 20 feet.
The walls are inscribed with the words: virtue, sobriety, equity, justice, truth, fidelity, honor, decorum and candor – a clear signal that what transpired inside the walls was to be taken seriously, indeed.
Over the years, until a consolidation in 2023 moved state court operations to a new building in Biddeford, thousands of people were tried for felony offenses in the courtroom, including murder.
As to documents, the record of the Roles – Humphrey deed, one of the earliest copies in the registry, is tattered and fragile, but now, preserved, as are many others, with more to come.
Registrar Nancy Hammond shed some light on it and other like documents.
“What we currently have here in Alfred is what I believe to be the transcription of the documents that were presented for recording with the original documents being returned presumably to the purchaser,” said Hammond. The county would have employed a scribe to undertake the transcription.
Hammond noted a preface in Volume 1 of the York County Registry of Deeds books that reads: “The court of general sessions of peace, held at York, October 5, 1731, and thereupon the following order was issued: Records of Deeds belonging to this County is very much torn and out of the binding and cannot be well new bound, it is ordered by this Court that the County Register be and hereby is directed to buy a New book and Transcribe all the Deeds & contained in said old Book into the said new one at the charge of this County the account of which to be laid before this Court.”
Later still, in 1887, the Maine Historical Society, with the Maine Legislature’s blessing, took on the task of publishing York County’s early recordings, producing 20 volumes that date from 1642 to 1737.
While the York County Registry of Deeds and the York County Registry of Probate maintain permanent legal records of the business conducted in their departments, there are many other documents.
Preservation efforts all started, O’Neill told the group, with eight boxes of documents stored in the courthouse labelled “keep forever,” a clear signal that what was inside was well worth preserving.
Hammond and others began the process of examining “keep forever” boxes about five to six years ago and a bit later, the county contracted with Lilly Archival of Blue Hill to help. O’Neill began his role in record management in 2024. Sorting and carefully preserving those earliest records continues, and the drive to make more historical items available online to the public is ongoing.
“From an education point of view, the tour showed me the value of cursive and pen and ink writing styles contained in historic documents, and the art and science in the use of inks, watercolor or other mediums to create and annotate maps,” said Marshwood Adult Education Director Linda Greer.
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