In a message dated 3/15/2007 6:56:22 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, pchrist1@nycap.rr.com writes: > Leslie asked for a legal scholar. Sorry to disappoint, but we'll see if a > layman can help here. > > My questions are: > > 1. Once a patent had been granted for land in Albany County in 1684 and a > portion of that land hand been occupied by the Patentees, Why would that > patent need to be reconfirmed and apparently reissued to the same > Patentees > in 1708? > ----- > I think the owners must have perceived some defect in the prior patent > that > they hoped to resolve. The other possibility, given the year, was that it > may have been a Dutch patent that needed re-confirmation from the British > colonial government. > >>From what little I have seen it seems safe to say that many patents had > poorly defined borders. For instance, suppose two patents that describe > boundaries as measured inland for ten miles from the Hudson River, further > supppose that those two patents are separated only by a much smaller > patent > and that the shoreline curves slightly, it's not hard to see that those > two > perpendicular boundaries might intersect further inland. > > 2. In 1743, why did the proprietors of the Saratoga Patent (descendants > of > the original patentees) have to petition the legislature for permission to > subdivide the undeveloped lands within the Saratoga Patent, which the > aforementioned proprietors held as tenants in common. > ---- > Pure speculation on my part here. Did they HAVE to petition or did they > want > to petition? Did the owners seek to gain a more easily transferable title? > Or did the colony have an interest in seeing that is wasn't called in > later > to adjudicate issues, that is, that it was providing equal pro land was sometimes purchased by a "corporation" of several individuals, who then developed part of it, and held the rest in common. (It took about 10 years to wrest a 10 acre farm from the wilderness) Each partner held shares, and that determined the amount of land he was entitled to. If part of the land was not developed within a certain period of time, the government could take it back and sell it to someone else, and they often did particularly in the late 17th century early 18th. This happened with Harrison's Purchase in Westchester County. By confirming the patent, it shows the settlers learned their lesson. best wishes, Kris Liddle <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com.