The names below are those of the signers (copied verbatim) of the Compact of Loyalty, Apr. 30, 1639, which was as follows: "We whose names are underwritten do acknowledge ourselves the legal subjects of His Majesty King Charles, and in his name do hereby bind ourselves into a civil body politic, unto his laws according to matters of justice."
The foregoing and the list of signers are from "Early Records of Town of Portsmouth R.I." In a reproduction of a torn partial record of 1639 in the same book is this: "eorge Layton & Tho Laiton to ech halfe an ac next him e of ye ponde" showing how names of both brothers were misspelled here when written by another. Where George wrote his name signing the Compact it was correctly spelled. Thomas did not have his name written correctly in his signature (suggesting it was signed by another). His name is correctly spelled on 41 later pages of this same volume mentioning him down to Feb. 19, 1653 and referring to his land down to the year 1659. Two signatures were erased above, as shown. The above was adapted from the writings of F. B. Lawton in Lawton Ancestral Lines. -end-
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