I've seen many mentions of how much fraud there was in the allocation of land claims in Illinois, of particular interest to me in the period of about 1785 to 1805. There are many lists of grants allowed, but is there a way to find information about claims that were denied, particularly with reasons, which would give some indication of the amount and perpetrators of the fraud?

According to 'Land Transactions in Illinois Prior to the Sale of Public Domain' by Raymond H. Hammes, in __Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society,__ LXXVII: 2, Summer 1984, p. 112-113: Claims rejected appear in American State Papers: Public Lands II. The first report of the Commissioners was submitted 31 Dec 1809. Approved claims are listed separately from Rejected Claims *with reason given*. This would include your period of interest. Congress accepted and confirmed these findings on 1 May 1810. A couple years later a second Board of Commissioners was established to review/approve/reject confirmations of claims made by Govs. St. Clair and Harrison --submitted to Congress 1813 and confirmed 1 Apr 1814 (also appears in ASP-PL) Hammes goes on to say 50% of all claims were rejected, commonly due to fraud, forgery, perjury, but also by testimony of witnesses when the claim was known to be false (p. 113). Anyone whose settlers had a land interest in Illinois during the territorial period and earlier, will find the above cited article summarizes the land issues quite nicely. The Belleville Public Library (http://www.compu-type.net/rengen/stclair/BPL.htm or their own new web site at: www.bellevillepubliclibrary.org ) has this article; as does the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield (http://www.alplm.org/library/published_materials.html - 112 North Sixth Street, Springfield, IL 62701-1507.) Diane W. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Perrault" <perrault@AI.SRI.COM> To: <ILSTCLAI-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2005 8:21 PM Subject: [ILSTCLAI] Illinois land claims > I've seen many mentions of how much fraud there was in the allocation of > land claims in Illinois, of particular interest to me in the period of > about 1785 to 1805. There are many lists of grants allowed, but is there > a way to find information about claims that were denied, particularly with > reasons, which would give some indication of the amount and perpetrators > of the fraud? > >