Just a guess .  I n the absence of solid banks and insurance, some wealthy 19th century citizens loaned money directly  to their neighbors.  The estate inventory of Ellis Lewis Pusey (d. 1851 in Chester Co.) lists 177 bonds with amounts ranging from tens of dollars to thousands and the names that I recognize are all farmers, craftsmen, and businesses in London Grove and adjacent townships . If someone borrowed money, presumably he would have had to provide some collateral.  If so, then if your John Riker was unable to repay a debt, he would have had to either cough up the collateral or sell something of value equal to the debt.  Perhaps the official bill of sale was part of some record that tied a $100 debt to a $100 sale of goods that settled accounts?  Rowland could have been the lender or just a go-to buyer of goods and chattel and the money may have gone directly to the lender with only the formal deed of sale  going to Riker? John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dora Smith" <tiggernut24@yahoo.com> To: pa-old-chester-l@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 10:45:00 AM Subject: [PaOldC] Question about Cecil County bill of sale This is a Cecil County question, but I bet there's more people around to answer it on the Chester County list. The land records have just one record on my ancestor JOhn Riker. Man lived there in the 1820 and 1830 census.  In mid 1830's he shows up in the tax records as having very little; the number 62 or so appears in the last four columns for each of two years, and only a couple of other people on the page had anything resembling that little.   In 1829 he had a child born who I suspect may have been  a child of a second wife, and way younger than his somewhat numerous other children.    Of course child is not named, but the name Riker was rare in Cecil and Chester Counties; seems only to have applied to this one family.   First family appears in Cecil County and then in 1850 in Chester County, by which time it consists of Elizabeth Riker, mother in law of Emeline Moore, and these two are the right ages to be John Riker's wife and youngest child in the earlier censuses.   In 1840 the family did not exist anywhere.   I've an idea they were quite poor and the Moores not much better off. In 1824 a bill of sale is recorded, in Cecil County..  It's a very formal bill of sale.  Of course, it does not tell us where in Cecil County John Riker lived; that would be far beyond anyone's capacity in Cecil County, on any document, at any time or for any reason. Even the tax records tell us he lived in good old E.D. 4, which is what the census says too!    ED 4 was the northwestern part of the county. For $100 he sold his brown cow  with a white face, two feather beds, four bedsteads, a cupboard and something else, and all other household and kitchen person in his possession or on his person, to Samuel Rowland "and Co.", who was a very rich local man who was constantly buying and selling property and that is all I could find out about him - and to all his heirs and assigns and so forth forever. What the ___? Did he go bankrupt, or have major depression when his first wife died and sell the household, or what?   What does it mean that a formal deed was filed of this transaction? Dora   ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PA-OLD-CHESTER-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message