Help me Peter!

It was a long search, finding exactly where Ephraim lived at Bishopsbourne. After a few scrapes, he finally managed to get himself into real trouble again and killed John Harris when trying to steal a sheep. The newspaper reports gave some indication as to where the block of land was and mentioned that Ephraim owned it. I found that hard to believe but set off to the Deeds office with my newspaper report in my hand and that is where I met Peter. He was wonderful! I explained exactly what I wanted to know and between us we worked out roughly where this piece of land might be found. We had a clue that it was 50 acres and that seemed to Peter to be the best place to start. We isolated an area near James Green's land and found a block of the right size. Peter disappeared of to look at records stored away where folks like me might never find them. Every few minutes, he would appear at the back of the room, heading in a different direction but signalling to me that he was still focussed on the search. Back and forward he went until, after 20 minutes he approached the counter with a look of triumph. In his hand he held some papers, describing the piece of land we had chosen and a map showing its dimensions. In printed letters on the map was written E Doe. Each letter had been neatly crossed out and replaced with the name Thomas Jones. Eureka! Dates showed that the land was a grant, taken up by Ephraim and then transferred to Thomas Jones two weeks after Ephraim and Bridget were arrested.
A search nowadays would be much harder to do. After collecting a key to the room where all these deeds are stored, you are on your own. Peter's help was free as were the copies of the maps I carried away with me that day. It was explained that I could get a hand coloured map to frame for a fee but I have not done that at this stage. I guess it was a much more interesting search for Peter than checking the lie of somebody's drainage pipes, but he made my day