Item 11733 - Noyes, Skinner, and Merrill lots, Topsham, 1762
- Item 11733 - Noyes, Skinner, and Merrill lots, Topsham, 1762
- Contributed by Maine Historical Society
- Item 11733
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Image Info Manuscript map #35 of Topsham, showing the Noyes, Skinner and Merrill lots, Jan. 5, 1762. This plan depicts 500 acres along the Cathance River. Belcher Noyes, proprietor and clerk of the company not only sold a lot on Map 35 to Thomas Wilson, but he also signed the survey for the company.
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Noyes was the nephew of Massachusetts Governor Jonathan Belcher, a Harvard Graduate and a prominent Boston Businessman. He was also a physician and speculator in the Maine frontier lands. He was the son of original Pejepscot Proprietor, Oliver Noyes, inheriting his title. Noyes was the clerk of the Pejepscot Proprietors after 1739. Company clerks like Noyes, along with at least one major shareholder, comprised the company Standing Committee and made many of the decisions about managing the new, unincorporated towns on proprietary lands, which were far away from the day to day lives of the wealthy Boston merchants. Although the title may sound humble, clerks managed the books and, as they were privy to sensitive information, wielded considerable power in company affairs.