LINZ Project - DEEDS SYSTEM
DESCRIPTION OF THE DEEDS SYSTEM:
The "Deeds" system comprised a set of books in which the records of land ownership was recorded. It appears that the system of recording such records was, to some extent, left to the discretion of each Lands and Deeds Office as it is known that the sets of records and the method of recording did differ from office to office.
In the New Plymouth Office of LINZ the original large bound volumes that dated from the 1840's were available in the public area. Some of the older volumes were rather worn and one sectional index book had actually parted at the binding causing several pages to become loose. Their size varied from 400 to 500mm high, up to 350mm wide and 90mm thick. Some volumes had over 300 leaves of good quality parchment, equaling over 600 pages. These volumes could weigh over 10 kilograms each and as our transcription volunteers were to find out, lifting them up and down from the shelves, for several hours at a time, tended to give your muscles a real good work out.
1) THE SECTIONAL INDEX BOOKS
This is an Index book and is in strict numerical order of the section number. Frederic Alonzo Carrington, the surveyor and designer of the township of New Plymouth, appears to have simply numbered the sections sequentially from the top right hand corner of his map proceeding along each street, back and forth, until the bottom left hand corner of the map was reached. The Sectional Index book gives the name of the original grantee and the reference to the "I" book that contains all the transactions for that section. A "Remarks" column can sometimes give additional information, such as the subdivision of the section, the taking of the section by the Crown or a subsequent owner. An example of a page of a sectional index book is shown here.
2) THE "I" BOOKS
These second level Index books devote one whole page to each section and listed on that page are all the transactions, known as 'Instruments" relating to that section. Instruments can be a Crown Grant, Conveyance, Re-conveyance, Mortgage, Section Exchange, Last Will, or Probate. The "I" book gives the consecutive number of the Instrument, the day, hour and minute of receipt of the Instrument (at Lands and Deeds), the nature of the instrument, the date of the Instrument and finally and most importantly the reference to which "R" book a copy of the instrument is recorded. For example, the reference R29 207 indicates that a copy of the instrument is contained in deeds book number R29, on page 207. Also there was usually a map of the section showing its size and location of the section relative to neighbouring sections and the roadway. Remember that in those days the size of a piece of land was not measured in feet and inches, or yards, nor metres, but in "Links", which was a link of the surveyors chain. A link is equal to 7.92 inches or approximately 201mm. An example of a page of an "I" book is shown here.
3) THE "G" BOOKS
These are the Crown Grant Books and contain a pre-printed Crown Grant form, with the Land and Deeds clerk filling in the details of the grantee, dates etc. when the grant was made. There was space for a description of the owner and this could show the new owners profession and place of residence. The Lands and Deeds clerk of the time was usually helpful to family historians as he/she? usually showed the place of residence prior to coming to New Plymouth. For example Frederic Alonzo Carrington, who was known to have surveyed the township and be living in New Plymouth at the time, was shown as "London, Civil Engineer" on his Crown Grants. A map showing the size and location of the section was also shown on Crown Grants. In New Plymouth there were twelve Crown Grant Books and these were kept together at one end of the shelves containing the "R" books. An example of a page of a Crown Grant Book is shown here.
4) THE "R" BOOKS
These are the books that the actual Instruments are recorded in. It appears that a copy of each instrument was forwarded by the Lawyer handling the transaction, to Lands and Deeds and it was manually copied into the "R" Book. It appears that the transactions were entered chronologically into the "R" books as they came to hand at Lands and Deeds. Thus the "R" books contain complete copies of the instruments showing entitlement of land ownership and the transfer of land from one owner to the next. They also contain copies of wills and probates and documentation where the landowner died intestate. These documents can be of great value to genealogists and family historians as they quite often name spouses and children. Also the change of ownership of land due to bankruptcy is recorded in the "R" Books. There was quite often more than one transaction entered on each page. Thus several transactions relating to one specific section could be scattered through several volumes of the "R" books. In New Plymouth there were over eighty "R" books covering the years 1840 to approximately 1900. An example of a page of an "R" book is shown here.