New York Early



Late 18th C. Wall Street Land Deed  

2pp Lower Manhattan land deed relating to Wall Street property dated March 23, 1785, and signed by seller Isaac Cox (1755-1787) and two witnesses, John Ramsay and Daniel McCormick. Beautifully inscribed in a clerical hand, and bearing an embossed red wax seal on the bottom of the second page. Blank third page, with docket notations on fourth page. Each page measures 9.25" x 15.125". The top is professionally repaired and trimmed. Expected light paper folds, and a few tiny holes at junctures of creases, else near fine.  

On March 23, 1785, merchant and shipowner Isaac Cox sold a parcel of land to fellow merchant William Edgar (1739-1820) for 5 shillings. Cox's property was oblong in shape and had a 48' frontage on Wall Street. It extended approximately 139' back on either side, and from clockwise, adjoined the property of John Marston, Sheffield Howard, Richard Yates, and Grace Mercer.  

Where is Cox's property today? It appears to have been located near the intersection of King Street (now William Street) and Wall Street, making it somewhere near the Wall Street Metro Station! Besides the explicit reference to King Street found in the land deed, two pieces of circumstantial evidence further point to this one-by-one-block neighborhood. First, neighbor Grace Mercer, better known during the Revolutionary War era as the Widow Mercer, ran a boarding house on the corner of Smith and King Streets (now William Street). Second, before Cox's death in 1787, the merchant worked at 194 Queen Street (now Pearl Street), located just a short walk down Wall Street. The land deed should yield fascinating discoveries when fully researched!  

The document reads in part:  

"This indenture made the twenty third day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty five Between Isaac Cox formerly of the City of Philadelphia in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, at present of the City of New York in the State of New York Merchant of the once part, and William Edgar of the said City of New York Squire of the other part Witnesseth that the said Isaac Cox for and in Consideration of five Shillings lawful money of New York to him in hand paid by the said William Edgar, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged Hath granted bargained sold and demised, and by these presents doth grant bargain sell and demise unto the said William Edgar and to his Heirs and Assigns all that certain Messuage Tenement or dwelling House, and lot Tost (?) piece or parcel of Ground and Gangway or Gateway situated in the Eastward of the said City of New York (late in the occupation of the said Richard Yates and now in the Occupation of the said Isaac Cox) bounded in front by Wall Street, on the Northwestwardly Side by the House and Ground of John Marston (but late of his Father Nathaniel Marston deceased) and on the southeastwardly Side by a Lot of Ground of one Mr. Richard Yates, containing in front to Wall Street forty eight feet be it more or less, and running into and having also nine Inches of the Wall of the said John Marston or thereabout and is in Length on the most westwardly Side along the Ground of the said John Marston on a straight Line from Wall street to a Corner of a Lot of Ground now in the occupation of Grace Mercer one hundred and thirty nine feet, and on the most eastwardly Side in a straight Line from Wall street aforesaid, along the Ground of the said Richard Yates to the Corner of the Lot of Ground of Sheffield Howard one hundred and thirty nine feet…"  

The sale included the land, along with all of its structures. (The legal term "messuage," which appears in our land deed, is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "a dwelling house with outbuildings assigned to its use.")  

Our landowner Isaac Cox was a member of one of the founding families of Bermuda. A Philadelphia merchant, Cox served as Regimental Paymaster for Pennsylvania troops during the Revolutionary War. By 1779, Cox had been promoted to Major. He was the co-owner of American privateers, such as the Hibernia, Patty, and Achilles, after 1780, the same year that he married Catherine Beekman. Manhattan tax records indicate that Cox was a slaveholder. Cox died in the spring of 1787; his friend John Ramsay, who served as one of the land deed witnesses, was named co-executor of Cox's estate. [More information on Isaac Cox can be found in C.S. Williams's genealogical record Descendants of John Cox (New York, 1909),  p. 48-52, and in George William Cocks's The Cox Family in America (New York, 1912), p. 136.]  

Buyer William Edgar had been born in Ireland. While in Detroit, Michigan, Edgar served as a financial agent for the British army. He moved to New York City around 1780, where he became a prosperous middleman in the China and East Indies trade. Between 1779-1783, Edgar formed part of the concern Macomb, Edgar, Macomb. Edgar's papers can be found in the New York Public Library Archives and Manuscripts collection; the wealthy merchant corresponded with the likes of Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Horatio Gates, DeWitt Clinton, and Daniel Webster.  

A remarkable early Federal document relating to the sale of land just a few blocks east of the New York Stock Exchange!  


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