Indentures, Property Transactions and Wills Registered with the Central District Court
UPDATE
April 1, 2019
This is an update to the explanation given below explaining how I have chosen and obtained the documents on this page.
Recently I have obtained access to some of the ROD documents in digital form and this has allowed me to add to the documents I had previously copied manually and, in some cases, later transcribed in 2011, 2014 and 2016.
For the most part, these new images pertain to lesser names in my list of research priorities that I had not previously considered meriting the effort needed to make a copy at ROD the old fashioned way. But there are some new finds pertaining the main families of interest to my research.
As of this date, the ROD still has not made accessible to the public at large the digital versions of the older documents they have on record, though indeed digital versions do exist. It is not known when public access can be expected.
Meantime, I will continue to add to the files of interest both here and in the collection of documents I have already placed online that are found in the Southern District Court and the Northern District Court files.
In 2016, I spent several days reviewing the Volumes of registers of the Central District Court that are in the collection of the Registry of Deeds in St. John’s. These Volumes cover a period from approximately 1824 to 1890 or a little earlier. After that time all land transactions were recorded directly at the Registry of Deeds rather than in the District Courts (Southern, Central and Northern) which then ceased to exist as such, and Wills were recorded at the Supreme Court Probate Office. A separate Registry of Crown Grants has been held at the Provincial Lands Directorate, a part of the Provincial Department of Municipal Affairs and its predecessors. This registry originally contained the original grants given dating back to the 1830s, though a large number of the early grants were lost in the Great Fire of 1892. Just why these Grants are kept separate from those that exist at Registry of Deeds is a question only a provincial bureaucrat can answer, though not to the satisfaction of anyone other than another provincial bureaucrat. For the public it just adds confusion and inconvenience to a system already fraught with confusion and inconvenience.
I checked the Central District Court records only for records pertinent to my maternal ancestry, the Wheeler line. I had already scoured the Southern District Court records for entries pertinent to my paternal ancestry (Morrys, Carters, Windsors, etc.) but, since many of the family gradually moved to St. John’s and nearby areas, which were covered by the Central District Court, there is a good chance that I will find entries of interest in that system as well, but that is a task for another year.
In the course of my visits to the Registry of Deeds, I noted down from the indexes of these volumes any entries that might be of interest to my maternal lineage. I only made copies of a small number of these documents using the self-serve photocopy machine or in some instances cameras and hand held digitiser (both of which are forbidden in the Registry). The ones copied are those of greatest interest to the family history. The others noted may be copied later on as time permits.
Apparently there is a plan afoot to have all of these older documents scanned professionally so that they can be accessed by computer, as is the case for modern land registers already. I have only obtained one officially scanned copy of such a document from Steve Barnable at the Lands Directorate and it is head and shoulders better than a photocopy or even my own non-professional scans, so the day when all of these have been rendered in this fashion cannot come too soon for researchers and those concerned about the preservation of these historical documents.
In total, I have made copies of 7 documents dating from 1847 to 1887 from all the Volumes of the Central District Court. After the latter date, all subsequent transactions involving Wheelers are found in the regular volumes of the Registry since the Central Court system ceased to exist at that time. Copies of later land transactions are found on the page referred to as “Registry of Deeds 1885 to Present”.
Documents photocopied or scanned at the Registry of Deeds in St. John’s in 2016
The list that follows is a short form index of all documents at the Registry of Deeds in the Volumes of the Central District Court (CDC) that I have copied and that are available in PDF form. I will transcribe all of these and make them into MS Word files as time allows.
The entries indicate the source (CDC Volume), the pages (referred to as Folios) on which those documents appear in the Volume, the names of the principals involved, and the date in the form dd-mm-yyyy. In many cases there are several dates on each document as it passed through various stages of being prepared, registered and approved by the court. The date given is therefore approximate. The names shown are as they appear in the document in question, though I have abbreviated some longer names by using initials and though in many cases the spelling in the document is incorrect as we know it.
Note that I have ordered the documents by Volume and Folio. Almost all documents occupied more than one page (Fol) but in a very few instances they took up only a single page and, in those cases, FOL will be followed by a single page number.
Finally, I can only apologise for the poor quality of some of these copies. I did the best that I could considering the primitive copying conditions and rules that presently exist at the Registry of Deeds. The transcripts, when I make them, will reflect the poor quality of the photocopies in some instances, with gaps or question marks where words were either cut off or undecipherable.
CDC Vol 2 Fol 218 Thomas Avery from and to Henry Le Messurier 10-02-1853
Henry Le Messurier is here seen acquiring title to a property near Kings Bridge for £300 and in turn obtains a mortgage for that same amount on a ten year term from Thomas Avery. The property in question is now occupied by a Newfoundland Hydro sub-station.
CDC Vol 9 Fol 387-392 Peter W Carter in trust and Geo Hutchings et al 22-12-1820
First part of the two part transaction conveying Marsh Meadow on Duckworth St. to Peter Weston Carter to be managed in trust for the grandchildren of George and Mary Hutchings by their daughter Eliza Coke Hutchings, recently deceased wife of Pierre Broom Le Messurier.
CDC Vol 9 Fol 385-387 Peter W Carter and George Hutchings et al 22-12-1820
Second part of the two part transaction conveying Marsh Meadow on Duckworth St. to Peter Weston Carter to be managed in trust for the grandchildren of George and Mary Hutchings by their daughter Eliza Coke Hutchings, recently deceased wife of Pierre Broom Le Messurier.
CDC Vol 10 Fol 295-297 Joseph Wheeler To John W. Brocklebank 20-08-1847
CDC Vol 11 Fol 247 John W. Brocklebank To Joseph Wheeler 04-10-1848
CDC Vol 11 Fol 247-249 Joseph Wheeler To William B. Row 10-10-1848
CDC Vol 12 Fol 33-35 Peter W & Sydney S Carter et al to John W McCurdy 24-12-1849
CDC Vol 14 Fol 332-334 Peter W Carter Ex William Carter to Rev Edward Feild 25-01-1849
CDC Vol 16 Fol 436-437 Sarah Carter from Felix Dowsley 25-05-1861
CDC Vol 18 Fol 547-548 Sarah Carter from Catherine Long Ex et al 23-03-1864
CDC Vol 19 Fol 381-383 Thomas Kough Exor. To William Wheeler 29-11-1864
CDC Vol 19 Fol 386-389 William Wheeler To Revd. George P. Harris 09-11-1864
CDC Vol 21 Fol 73-75 Mary O Morey from Henry Winser 03-10-1865
CDC Vol 21 Fol 95-97 Thomas G & Eliza Morry et al to William Woodford 19-02-1865
CDC Vol 21 Fol 368-369 Jane Wheeler Wid. et al To Charles Langdon 27-05-1867
CDC Vol 22 Fol 535-538 Frederick B T Carter Ex Sydney S to Rev Thomas J Power 01-11-1872
CDC Vol 23 Fol 192-193 Sarah Carter to Margaret Long 06-01-1870
CDC Vol 23 Fol 202-204 Thomas G & Eliza Morry to Lewis Tessier 9-03-1870
CDC Vol 23 Fol 344-346 George H Le Messurier Trustee from James Rolls 23-01-1874
CDC Vol 24 Fol 222-223 James & Harriett E F Carter from Benjamin Morry et al 15-07-1874
CDC Vol 24 Fol 389-390 Sarah Carter et al to James L Noonan 01-11-1875
CDC Vol 24 Fol 392-393 Sarah Carter from James L Noonan 01-11-1875
CDC Vol 26 Fol 380-381 William T S Carter to and from James Carter 08-05-1879
CDC Vol 26 Fol 488-489 Robert Carter from Thos McGrath 06-11-1879
CDC Vol 28 Fol 20-23 James Carter from Benjamin S Morry et al 03-05-1880
CDC Vol 29 Fol 162-163 Eliza H Admx Thomas G Morry to Campbell Macpherson 29-12-1882
CDC Vol 29 Fol 225-227 George H Le Messurier Trustee to Henry W Le Messurier et al 13-07-1882
CDC Vol 29 Fol 291-292 Henry C Le Messurier et al to Henry Cook Trustee 25-01-1884
CDC Vol 29 Fol 336-337 George W Le Messurier from James Baird 04-04-1884
CDC Vol 29 Fol 418-419 Eliza H Admx Thomas G Morry to Thomas W Spry 13-03-1883
CDC Vol 30 Fol 40 William T S Carter PA to Hugh H Carter 20-02-1883
CDC Vol 30 Fol 132-133 James and Harriet Carter from Robert J Kent et al 22-10-1883
CDC Vol 30 Fol 154 Henry C Le Messurier from George R Lilly et al PA 13-10-1883
CDC Vol 30 Fol 385-386 Elizabeth Viola Carter from Walter B Grieve 07-01-1885
CDC Vol 31 Fol 493-494 Harriet E F Carter from Lionel T Chancey et al Trs 10-03-1888
CDC Vol 31 Fol 494-495 Harriet E F Carter to Lionel T Chancey et al Trs 13-04-1888
CDC Vol 32 Fol 10-13 Harriet E A Carter to Edwin J Duder 04-01-1886
CDC Vol 32 Fol 13-16 Harriet E Carter et al and Alex J W McNeily Trs 06-01-1886
CDC Vol 32 Fol 254-255 Philip Wheeler To William Field 06-05-1887
CDC Vol 33 Fol 207-208 Ellen Wheeler To John D. Martin 22-10-1887