Totally made up image… they did not have photos back in the day…
Arthur Kavenaugh, from “parts unknown” as every TV Wrestling fan of old knows…came from “Surry County”… somewhere. At the time of this deed deal, that could have been anywhere from James River to the North Carolina border near the modern Roanoke River (Morattock during his time).
I think it highly likely he was near modern Emporia in Virginia. That was “the” Trading Post and Indian Trader hangout at the time. Captain Robert Hicks was the “Big Dog” thereabouts then. Kavenaugh owned land nearby Hicks…on the Meherrin River. He married the mother of Thomas Whitmell. Sly ladie’s man I suspect…silver-tongued no doubt.
Kavenaugh was a wheeler/dealer… sometime Indian Trader I am sure, otherwise he hustled…one has to eat. He strikes me as being “of the Gambler type” which would ply their trade on Riverboats…perhaps to New Orleans (a hundred years later).
In this instance he “leased’ 600 acres from a patent he had obtained on Occoneechee Neck at Morattock River in NC. It was directly on the River at a place called “Hull Hole”.
I have discussed this process of lease/release of deeds elsewhere on this site… this is a perfect example: on July 13, he leases the property for 5 shillings; the next day July 14, he releases the property for 1 horse. This fascinates me because:
1. it values 600 acres at the value of a horse!
2. a horse was worth about £12 sterling evidently in 1715
This was the Art of the Steal in its day. Government then, as so today, wanted control of transactions and a piece of the action for their trouble of Lording over you. The colonists,(good English Commoners then) used this mechanism to tell them to pound sand.
Kavenaugh traded the 600 acres for a good horse (doubtless) and he and stepson Thomas were both satisfied with the deal. Simple. Only 50 years ago it was very usual and accepted practice in the South ( I can’t vouch for Yankee Land) to sell a used car (or whatever) for $1. Everyone knew it was to avoid the State Sales Tax. That was when people with an ounce of common sense in our heads understood how to control Government.
You people have lost control now. 25 years or so ago, I sold a car to my brother for $1. (I live in Floida). They sent a threating letter demanding a “legitimate” and acceptable price be placed on the sale (and getting their tax for Lording over me). I sent them back another letter and told them to pound sand/ he was my brother and it was basically a gift. They folded.
Try that today…I dare you.
Sidenote: The Laurence Mague (witness in these transactions) lived near the Chowan River at this time… and as I can’t see him being at Occoneechee Neck this must have been at a Court near the Chowan River. A chance to go to the big city!…smiling
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