Papers of the Winthrop Family, Volume 4
1644-11-27
It is agreed this 27th of Novemb: betweene John Winthrop iunior and Thomas King, that the said John Winthrop having delivered vnto the said Tho: King twenty pounds in trading cloth, and wampampeage in hand the day above named The said Thomas doth covenant, and agree with him that he will speedily goe vp with other men to be hired by himselfe the said Thomas vnto Tantiusques the blacklead hill and that he will there imploy himselfe, and his men in working vpon the digging vp of Blacklead for the said John Winthrop, for which he is to have after the rate of fourty shillings for every Tunne to be paid him when he hath digged vp twenty Tunnes of good marchantable blacklead, and put it into an house safe from the Indians, of which the summe of twenty pounds delivered him in hand is to be part of the said payment, and he doth promise that he will worke vpon the digging of the said blacklead, in beginning with digging a trench from the lower part of the hill or the descent therof, and carry the same trench into the hill, that the water may be therby Issued from the Vaines of the blacklead, and wheras the Indians have informed the said John Winthrop of another place not farre thence where there is also blacklead, he doth covenant to goe to see that place and to worke the same for the said John Winthrop at the easiest rate that he can, and if he findeth it easier to worke then that at Tantiusques 498then he will certify the same to the said John Winthrop with all the speede he can.
American Antiquarian Society. The body of the document is in the handwriting of John Winthrop, Jr.