The indenture is 12x18½” and is mounted on what appears to be the pages of an old ledger, which has an ink date of 1774 on the reverse. It has been folded into quarter sections, and sewn together in the middle with old flax thread. There is a blind embossed seal mounted on the upper left corner next to Lord Fairfax’s name, and it is boldly signed in a 1x4” signature by Robert Carter on the lower right, as well as George Reeves in the lower left. 

Early Colonial  land indenture which appears to be transferring some 941 acres of land in Lancaster County owned by The Rt. Honorable Lord Fairfax to a George Reeves of Stafford County,  Virginia  “during the sovereign reign of George the second of Great Britain, Scotland and Ireland, King Defender of the Government, Anno Domini 1728”. It is known that Robert Carter, (1662-1732) known as Robert “King” Carter due to his wealth, political power as Colonial Governor of Virginia and autocratic business methods, was the agent for Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, known simply in Virginia as Lord Fairfax, and served two terms as agent for the Fairfax Proprietary of the Northern Neck of Virginia. In 1702-1711 he began to acquire large tracts of land for himself in the Rappahannock River region of Virginia, including some 20,000 acres of which part was his Nomini Hall plantation which he purchased in 1709 from the heirs of col. Nicholas Spencer, cousin of the Lords Culpeper from whom the Fairfaxes had inherited their Virginia holdings. On Carter’s death in 1732 in Lancaster County, Virginia he left behind 300,000 acres of land, 1000 slaves and 10,000 British pounds in cash. After Lord Fairfax saw Carter’s obituary he was astonished to read of the immense personal wealth acquired by his resident land agent, and sent his cousin to Virginia to act as his agent, until he himself moved to Virginia permanently in 1747.