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Deeds for mill-seats on the Brandywine Creek and environs

Creation: 1719-1855 Creation: Majority of material found within 1790-1855
 Collection
Accession: 2502

Abstract

Oliver Canby (1716-1754) was a miller on the Brandywine Creek. This collection of deeds and indentures documents the acquisition of mills or mill seats, and other lands near the Brandywine Creek in Wilmington, Delaware by the Canby family. This collection was in the possession and care of the Canby family until it was given to Hagley Museum and Library in 2011 by a descendant of Oliver Canby.

Dates

  • Creation: 1719-1855
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1790-1855

Creator

Extent

1.5 Linear Feet

Biographical Note

Oliver Canby (1716-1754) was a miller on the Brandywine Creek. He continued his family’s tradition of operating mills that were begun in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by Dr. Tymen Stidham (fl. 1704) and Samuel Kirk (1782-?).

The family of Dr. Tymen (Tymon) Stidham (Stedham/Stidden) ran the first mill on the Brandywine. They owned land on the south side the Brandywine from tidewater to Rattlesnake Run. Their barley mill was built sometime before 1687.

Samuel Kirk purchased the old barley mill and surrounding land from the Stidman family in the early eighteenth century. Kirk then formed a company to raise capital for a new mill and to build a dam at the foot of West Street in Wilmington, Delaware.

Oliver Canby bought shares in the Kirk Company in 1742 and built a short race and mill powered by a breast wheel at the foot of Orange Street in Wilmington, Delaware. The following year, 1743, he bought out the Kirk shareholders. By controlling three mill sites and the south side of the Brandywine from Rattlesnake Run to tidewater, Canby secured his family’s fortune for many generations to come.

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

Scope and Content

A collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century deeds and indentures regarding the Canby family’s acquisition of mills or mill seats and surrounding lands near the Brandywine Creek in Wilmington, Delaware. Materials date from 1719 to 1863 and are presented on vellum or paper. Numerous deeds, leases, condemnations, mortgages, conveyances, and maps are contained within. Highlights include a large 1796 hand-colored map documenting a land dispute along the Brandywine Creek in Wilmington, Delaware. Local families involved in this dispute include Hollingsworth, Morton, Canby, and Shipley. Notations in iron gall and red ink, include illustrations notating buildings along the ‘Brandy Wine Creek’; a sketch of the Christiana Creek [River]; a drawing of the bridge crossing the Brandywine near Market and King Streets. The stream system of Rattle Snake run is also notated. A late eighteenth or early nineteenth century genealogical history of descendants of Dr. Timon Stidham (Timothy Steadman) of Wilmington, Delaware, records the shares of his estate given to his children and the subsequent descendants of those shares to Stidham’s heirs through the eighteenth century.

Access restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Language of Materials

English

Related Names

Subject

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title:
Deeds for mill-seats on the Brandywine Creek and environs
Description rules:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description:
English
Script of description:
Latin

Revision Statements

  • 2020: Marsha Mills

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository

Contact:
PO Box 3630
Wilmington Delaware 19807 USA
302-658-2400