His Excellency John Lord Carteret Palatine, and the rest of the true and absolute Lords Proprietors of Carolina, to persons to whome these presents shall come Greeting in our Lord God Everlasting - Know ye that we the said Lords and absolute proprietors, for and in consideration of the Sum of two Buck Skins in hand paid to our Resever General by King Squieres and the rest of the Indians, commonly called the Mattamuskeet Indians, we hereby Give, Grant, Sell, alien, enfeoff and confirm unto the said Squieres and, and the rest of the Indians commonly called the Mattamaskeet Indians, a tract of Land lying and being at Mattamuskeet on Pamplycoe sound, containing by Estimation, Ten Thousand two hundred and forty acres Beginning at the Mouth of old Mattamuskeet creek, runing up that creek and the Northern most branch of it to the head thereof, thence to the Lake SoWs (___gap___) pole, then along the Lake Southerly to Matchapungo Bluff woods, then NoEs to Pamlicoe sound, from thence along Pamlico sound to the first Station -- To Have and to Hold the said Land, with all rights and Priviledges of Hunting, Hacoking, Fishing and Fowling, with all woods, waters and rivers, with all profits and commoditys and Hereditaments to the same Belonging or appertaining, Except one half of all Gold and Silver Mines unto him the said King Squieres and Mattamuskeet Indians his Heirs and Assigns forever, Yielding and paying unto us and our Heirs and Successors Yearly, every 29th day of September the fee rent of one Shilling, for every hundred acres Hereby Granted to be Holden of us our Heirs and Successors,, in free and Common Sochage Given under the Seal of the Colloney, the first day of April, one Thousand seven hundred and twenty seven
Witness our Trusty and wall Beloved Sir Richd. Everard, Baron. Governor, and the rest of our Trusty and well Beloved Councellors who have hereunto set their Hands--
C. Gale
I. Worley
Edmd. Gale Tho. Harvey
Franics Forster
E. Mosely
I. Lovick
Richd. Everard
Wm. Reed
Is this the Mattamuskeet Reservation? If so, the Indians sold it many times, in pieces or in whole. The reference to NE from the lake edge has to be wrong. That configuration makes no sense. But, change NE to SE and we get the above plot. Edward Moseley often got his survey details wrong because he rarely surveyed them. I am sure that an Indian Reservation was not high on his list of importance as he was most concerned with personal profit and he had already reaped some rewards from Tuscarora lands, after the Indians were removed, that is.
Notice that “Long Shoal R.” (actually much farther to the north and nowhere near the lake) is the northernmost creek, then “Old Mattamuskeet Cr” (correct: about where Far Creek is, but actually should be where “Long Shoal R.” is) then “New Mattamuskeet Cr.” Third (Wysocking?). Passing all the way to the west of the lake, we find Matchapungo Bluff. The bluff is clearly directly south of the lake on other maps. I often wonder if Eddie did drugs. He probably never saw this place. I mean, how could you develop a survey like the one here for the Mattamuskeet Reservation (and he WAS the surveyor-general at the time) and still draw a map like this six years later? He was drunk or completely ignorant of the area!
There’s just one kink in this theory. If Gullrock is included in the Reservation, and Matchapungo Bluff is on the south of the lake like it is today, then this reservation was more than three times the stated 10,240 acres! But, that wouldn’t be unusual for Moseley. He never set foot on this land when it was “surveyed,” just like he did with many of his surveys. Many colonists had to have them redone because they “could not determine the sd bounds within the sd patent” or something like that. Many plots of land were as much as three times the size… or maybe that much less. I found all too common complaints in the Colonial Records.
This might explain why the supposedly “savage” (therefore, unable to take advantage of a survey error) Indians were able to sell this land at least twice… lol. If that’s the case, however, even my NE to SE fixit will not work, but Eddie drew his surveys on paper and from his 1733 map, the area that he was “surveying” was quite a bit different than he thought. It works when you look at his map! Eddie thought he was giving them a small piece of the pie.
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