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[masthead] Walter R. Benjamin Autographs Established 1887 18 East 77th Street Mary A. Benjamin, Director New York 21, New York

Dec. 6, 1950

M Kenneth Roberts Kennebunkport, Maine.

Dear Mr. Roberts :

I am handling on consignment an item that I think will be of considerable interest to you, thought the price may discourage you . However you who are interested in Maine history, I believe, should at least know that such an item is on the market.

I refer to a Land Deed or Patent, granted by the Plymouth Council, dated March 13th, 1629, and signed by the Earl of Warwick . It is on one sheetof paper, oblong folio, with the original seal preserved, and is framed. The documents granted the rights for about one million acres of what is today the State of Maine to "Jon Beauchamps of London gentleman and Thomas Leverett of Boston in the County of Lincolne gentleman their heirs and associates and assigns." This grant was first known as the "Muscongus Patent" (see Williamson, History of Maine, vol. 1, p. 240, who gives incorrectly the date as March 1630) and was later called the Waldo Patent."

The consigner advises me that there were usually two copies of these grants made, one to be sent to New England and the other one to be kept in England. The vellum copy of this Muscongus Patent is in the Massachusetts Historical Society. The copy I am offering is on paper. I understand that both copies are identical as far as signatures go. The price is $1,000.

Would you by any chance be interested, or would you perhaps know of some Maine person who might be? It is certainly a remarkable item.

Faithfully yours ,

Mary A. Benjamin [signature]

Publisher of "THE COLLECTOR"

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