Petition of Isaac and Jonathan Ball to the Massachusetts General Court

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts              

Humbly shew Isaac Ball and Jonathan Ball, both of Stockbridge in the County of Berkshire, that on the 26th day of June Anno Domini 1772, they purchased of Joseph Shauquethqueat, Benjamin Waunchnawwet, and David Naunauneekkaunuck, three Stockbridge Indians, a tract of land containing fifty acres, lying west on land granted to Hannibal, a free Negro, and running to the river, which land your petitioners fairly purchased and honestly paid for and have some of the same under improvement.1             

Your petitioners, therefore, pray that Your Honors would be pleased to confirm to us the title to said land, agreeable to the deed given to us by the said Joseph, Benjamin, and David.            

And as in duty bound shall ever pray,

• 1. On January 11, 1772, the Stockbridge Proprietors voted that the fifty acre lot of land "which Joseph Shauquesquot . . . Sold to Isaac Ball and Jonathan Ball be confirmed to the said Isaac and Jonathan by virtue of said Sale as fully and absolutely as if the Same had been granted and Surveyed to the said Joseph before said sale was made." Stockbridge Indian Proprietor Book, 106, transcribed by Rick Wilcox.