Two of Saratoga County’s most historic documents — an 1812 copy of the Kayaderosseras Patent map and a land deed written on sheepskin in 1786 — have been repaired and restored and will be put on display in the county clerk’s records vault.
“This is the 300th anniversary of the signing of the original Kayaderosseras Patent, so we believe it would be a fitting time to restore the 1812 Kayaderosseras Patent map,” said County Clerk Kathleen A. Marchione.
The 41⁄2-by-4-foot map, cleaned, repaired and reframed behind ultraviolet filter glass, was publicly unveiled before the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
It’s going to be hung in the near future in the clerk’s temperature-controlled records vault, along with the restored 1786 deed.
Copies have also been made and will be part of a traveling presentation Marchione’s office has put together for interested civic or senior citizen groups. The patent had 13 original signers, she said, some of them colorful characters.
“There’s some interesting stories. It adds a lot of historic perspective for people who live in this county,” Marchione said.
The Kayaderosseras Patent is the land grant signed in 1708 by Queen Anne of England, allowing the sale of 406,404 acres of land and separating it from colonial Albany County. Most of the patent land is now in Saratoga County, though parts of the patent extended into what are today Warren and Hamilton counties.
Most of the area wasn’t actually settled until the 1770s.
The 1812 map, drawn in pen and ink with hand-drawn lakes and rivers, was for use as a surveyor’s map, and it has been stored among the land deed records in the clerk’s office.
An ongoing multiyear project to scan and digitize historic records uncovered the map. Both of the historic documents were digitized and placed on compact discs during the restoration.
“This map was all folded up in an envelope. They did a wonderful job to preserve it,” said Lynda Bryan, the county clerk’s document coordinator.
Joseph Marroti Co. of Milton, Vt., was paid $2,000 for the restoration job on both documents.
Marroti soaked the old map in distilled water to reduce stains, tide marks and discoloration acquired from water exposure over the years. “The map was so badly stained it had to be treated again by a more advanced method,” Marchione said.
The map was then deacidified, dried and flattened between acid-free blotters. It was mounted on acid-free paper, retouched and framed behind special glass that filters out damaging ultraviolet light.
The 1786 sheepskin deed wasn’t as damaged as the map but went through a similar process of being copied, mounted on an acid-free backing and framed with UV-filter glass. The 1786 deed was granted by Mary Broughton Governour Ludlow, whom Marchione said was a descendant of one of the original 13 patent signers. It was for land in the vicinity of what is now Sweetman Road in Charlton.
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