In "an act concerning writings in foreign languages," the General Assembly declared on March 10, 1843, that, "All deeds and other instruments of writing which may be recorded by the laws of this State, shall be in the English language, else the record thereof shall not be deemed notice to creditors or purchasers, as the record of other deeds is deemed to be."
This 1855 quitclaim deed, in French, is part of a collection pertaining to 56,000 acres, surveyed in 1785. The land, located in Scott, Harrison, Owen, and Grant counties in what is now Kentucky, was acquired by Victor du Pont de Nemours in its entirety. The collection chronicles the history of the land and how other people obtained portions of it. A majority of the people with interest in the land lived in Guadeloupe, French West Indies. From the R. de Rezeville papers: letters, deeds, legal papers, and maps, 1805-1856, Kentucky Historical Society Collections.
