1790 CT Land Deed Wethersfield Great Meadow Capt Luke Fortune Federal Era Signed

Rare 1790 Connecticut Land Deed

Wethersfield "Great Meadow" – Capt. Luke Fortune, Maritime History & Continental Army Connection

This is a fascinating, framed early Federal-period Connecticut land deed dated April 5, 1790.

This document records the sale of a parcel of land in Wethersfield’s historic Great Meadow from Israel Smith and Jonathan Smith to Luke Fortune for the sum of twenty-one pounds lawful money.

The deed is an original, partially printed legal form completed and signed entirely by hand.
The property description notes that the parcel contains three roods and twenty rods (more or less). It explicitly names the “Highway leading to Pratt ferry” as the southern boundary and refers to adjacent lands belonging to Luke Fortune and Samuel Stillman.

DOCUMENT DETAILS:

Date: April 5, 1790 (Signed and acknowledged before the Justice of the Peace on the same date). Location: Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut Grantors: Israel Smith and Jonathan SmithGrantee: Luke FortuneConsideration: Twenty-one pounds lawful money.

Property Description:
A parcel in Wethersfield’s historic "Great Meadow" bounded south by the Highway leading to Pratt Ferry.Witnesses: Sam[uel] W. Williams and Simeon Robbins Signatures: Bold, clear original ink signatures of Israel Smith, Jonathan Smith, and Sam[uel] W.
Williams (acting as Justice of the Peace).

Seals: Features two original paper-and-wax layers/seals intact on the right margin.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT & RESEARCH:

Captain Luke Fortune & Wethersfield Maritime History:
While the deed identifies the buyer simply as "Luke Fortune of Wethersfield," the highly unusual name, location, and era strongly identify him as the prominent local mariner Captain Luke Fortune.

According to The History of Ancient Wethersfield, Fortune was an active figure in Wethersfield’s Atlantic maritime economy.
He is documented as a crew member aboard the sloop Fair Trader (sailing to West Indian ports including Nevis, Antigua, and Cat Island) and by 1775 became master of the sloop Ann, a vessel heavily employed in the West Indies trade.

Revolutionary War & Abner Andrew Connection:

Local Wethersfield archival records preserve a significant historical connection involving the grantee. On May 20, 1777, Luke Fortune and John Wright manumitted Abner Andrew, an enslaved Black man, on the condition that Andrew serve as their substitute in the Continental Army.
This arrangement relieved Fortune and Wright of their own military draft obligations.
Abner Andrew went on to serve honorably from 1777 through 1780, later purchasing the freedom of his wife, Zipporah, in 1781.

This document offers a direct, tangible link to a prominent Wethersfield family intertwined with Connecticut's early maritime and Revolutionary War history.