ROGER CONANT IN THE FUR TRADE PT2: "...A GREAT FARDEL OF BEAVER...'

Depositions by two more witnesses in a court case involving my ancestor Roger Conan, the fur trade and payment of a debt:

DEPOSITION OF TABITHA PITTMAN.
"This I Tabitha Pittman doe testify that at my husband Dikes last going away from me when he was taken away att Cape Codd by the hard winter being the last words he ever spake to me, he said 'wife when thee hast paid Peter Palfrey such a sum (but att present I know not the amount) then there is due to thee from Richard Foxwell onn the bills, three and twenty pounds or thereabouts and all for each partner and that itt was due and oweing to them at the time of the date of the bills."
"Taken upon oath 30: 1: 1657 before me Edmond Batter."

Francis Johnson deposed "that about twenty-four or live years since Mr. Roger Conant, Peter Palfrey, Anthony Dike and myself formed a partnership for a trade to the eastward in which trade they left, the sole business of management unto me Francis Johnson. * * * At the end of three years or thereabouts I sold unto Mr. Richard Foxwell all the interest in the house with the Debts due from the Indians, household stuff and trading goods for all which I took t wo bills of debt under his hand payable at two set days one in December the other June after. As 1 do remember some time after I sold to said Foxwell a small parcel of goods and took his bill for that sum, so that there were three bills of debt made in my name and pertains to what sum I know not. Sometime after the sd. Foxwell sends some beaver and otter by a boat which I received debts to our selves and other men which the trade was indebted to, this beaver and otter was disposed of for that. Two or three or more years after seeing no more pay came from the said Foxwell the above said parton'rs came to account to see how they stood upon which we found Mr. Foxwell so much indebted to us as amounted to 23 lbs. or thereabouts to every partener. the bills which we accounted desperate were delivered into the hands of Peter Palfrey at that time (being in my hands before) by Mr. Conants desire and our consent. * * *"
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 A History and Genealogy of the Conant Family in England and America, Thirteen Generations, 1520-1887: Containing Also Some Genealogical Notes on the Connet, Connett and Connit Families, private printing, Portland, Maine 1887

I'll conclude in the next post with a response to these depositions made by Roger Conant

To be continued...