Thursday, September 15, 2011

Cooper Seward family

Interesting family, the Cooper Sewards, of Chester. Beulah Cooper, Abraham's daughter and Nathan's (Cooper's Mill) niece, married Henry Seward (descendent of Obediah Seward who is on the 1752 freeholder list) and had a son William. William Seward, through the 19th century, became quite the land baron, buying, mortgaging, even foreclosing. We've learned all this in cataloguing the Cooper-Seward deed file here. Some of the documents are too fragile to scan (though not the 1778 deed--terrific rag paper!) so we'll try photographing them to digitize.

Yes, the Chester family was related to Secretary of State William Henry Seward, who thought the US should buy Alaska. Land acquisition seems to have run in the family?!