An Ancient Indenture.
Some time ago when W. H. Phillips tore down the old house on the Phillips farm, near the west shaft, he found among the accumulations of the garret the parchment indenture made when Mr. Phillips' great-great-great-grandfather, John Bull, started to learn the carpenter trade in England. He was apprenticed to serve seven years and his renumeration was to be £3 a year. At the end of that time he was to receive, according to stipulations of the bond, "one X (ax) and a squir and a hansoo (handsaw), fouer nogers (augers), a paire of Chysells, a gouge and a hamer."
The indenture is dated "Septem 9, 1668," and is highly prized by Mr. Phillips, as a relic, and also as a fragment of family history. The house in which these old papers were found was 18 by 20 feet, a small bed room and a pantry and a garret. It was built by Mr. Phillips' great-grandfather over 100 years ago, and the farm has been in possession of the Phillips family ever since. It comprises 135 acres, and, meager as were the dimensions of the old house, the original owner reared a large family there, and probably enjoyed life as well, as do the people of present day. While many Americans are able to trace their ancestry to England it is safe to say that there are few who, like Mr. Phillips, possesses documentary evidence of direct descent from John Bull. -North Adams (Mass.) Transcript.
Source: The Wichita Daily Eagle, Wichita, Kansas, Sunday Morning, March 2, 1890; Pg. 7, Column 4
