TIP #240 - LAND LAWS OF VIRGINIA Modified by Kentucky. Note: Starting with this post, I am going to only do one tip a week for an indefinite time. My schedule has become very hectic to the upcoming marriage of my daughter, etc. I will continue posting on Tuesdays. Thanks! Sandi Taken from the Acts Passed at the First Session of the 29th General Assembly, 1822, Chapter CVII, page 712. This topic is very detailed and I am going to include it in its entirety rather than abstract. THE Virginia Land Law, commencing with the signing session of 1779, and terminating with the fall session of 1791, does not come within the plan of this Digest. Those laws are in force, for protecting the rights derived from them, as the land law of 1705 is; but no rights can now be acquired under them. Considering the matter in this point of view, the Editors could not feel themselves justified in subjecting the state to the heavy expence of re-printing it; especially as much of the great part of it will be found in the first volume of Bradford, and in Toulmin's Digest, and the whole of it in the first volume of Littell; and it is confidently believed that the whole system will cease to excite any general interest, long before any difficulty in procuring the works above is mentioned, will be experienced. It is however, deemed proper to give the reader an idea of the nature of the rights derived from this system of law, which they do in the words of the late Chief Justice Bibb, as follows: Act of Va. Chan. Rev. p. 90, Litt. E.L.K, 1 vol. 392. "1st. Surveys made prior to the first day of January, 1778; which surveys, when made by a surveyor duly commissioned, &c. and by a warrant lawfully issued for military or other rights, were declared valid, as made, by the act of 1779; and if not so made, were declared void. Chan. Rev. p. 145, 165, 210. "2d. Military rights in the district set apart for the officers and soldiers of Virginia, in the continental and state service; some of which commenced by surveys directed by the superintending officers, and afterwards located, upon warrants, with the surveyors appointed for the districts, as divided between the troops in the state and continental lines. These claims rank, among each other, according to priority of location. Chan. Rev. p. 91, 92, 93. 1 Litt. 296-7-8, 401. "3d. Rights to 400 acres, in consideration of actual settlements made previous to the first day of January, 1778; by law, to include the settlement - ranking, relatively, according to priority of actual settlement. :4th. Pre-emptions for 1000 acres, for marking and improving the land prior to January 1778, to include the improvement - ranking , relatively, according to priority of marking and improving. "5th. Pre-emptions of 400 acres, in consideration of actual settlement, and subsequent to the first day of January, 1778; by law, to include the place settled - ranking, relatively, according to priority of actual settlement. "6th. Rights to 400 acres, called village settlements, or village rights (in contradistinction to actual settlements, granted in consideration of settlements in villages or stations; and raising a crop, or residing in the country one year, after the settlement; not confined by law to any particular spot, but at the election of the applicant, to be described in his certificate from the commissioners - ranking, relatively, according to priority of location with, and granted by the commissioners. "7th. Pre-emptions for 1000 acres, appendant to actual settlements, and adjoining the settlement tract - ranking; among themselves, according to the priority of their respective settlements. "8th. Pre-emption for 1000 acres, appendant to village settlements - ranking, among themselves, according to the priority of their respective settlement certificate granted by the commissioners. "9th. Entries upon certain military warrants, treasury warrants, pre-emption warrants, departing from the land to which the right of pre-emption attached - ranking, relatively, according to priority of location with the surveyor of the proper county. 1 Litt. 430, sec. 34. "10th. Orders of survey, by the county courts, in favor of poor persons, according to the act of Virginia, of May 1861, p. 15; such surveys to be executed on any vacant land." Introduction to 1st volume of Bibb's Reports, page xxi." But as a vast number of these claims have been perfected under laws passed by Kentucky, prolonging the time of executing surveys and returning plats and certificates to the register's office; and as such laws are still actually in force and operation, where any of the claimants labor under any of the enumerated disabilities, it is believed proper to insert them. They are as follows: "An act passed November 8th, 1792, in force from the first day of March thereafter. 1 Litt. 115. Preamble. Whereas it appears that an act passed by the Virginia assembly, in the year of our Lord 1785, entitled "an act to repeal an act entitled an act concerning entries and surveys on the western waters, and for other purposes," which hath been continued by subsequent acts, will expire before the same can be complied with: Of entries. Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That the above recited act be continued from the passage hereof, and the further time of one year from the first day of January next, be allowed the owners of entries t comply with the requisitions of the same, during which time no such entry shall be forfeited. And whereas an act, entitled "an act giving further time to the owners of surveys to return the plats and certificates thereof to the land office," will expire before the next session of assembly: Time given for returning plats, &c. Sec. 2. Be it enacted, That the further time of one year, to be computed from the eighth day of August next, be allowed for returning all plats and certificates of survey to the register's office. An act passed December 7th, 1793, in force from the first day of March and thereafter. 1 Litt. 173. Preamble. Whereas it appears that an act passed by the assembly of Virginia, in the year of our Lord 1785, entitled "an act to repeal an act entitled an act concerning entries and surveys on the western waters, and for other purposes," which has been continued by subsequent acts of the legislature of Virginia, and one act of this state, may subject the owners of entries to a forfeiture of the same, if the requisition of the said act should not be complied with: For remedy whereof, Further time given to survey lands. Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That the further time of two years from the first day of January next, be allowed to the owners of entries to comply with the requisitions of the said recited act, during which time no entries shall be forfeited. And to register plats and certificates. Sec. 2. That further time, from and after the eighth day of August next, until the end of the next session of assembly, be given to the owners of plats and certificates of survey, to return the same to the register's office. An act passed on the same day, and in force from its passage. 1 Litt. 174. Register to deliver certain land warrants. Sec. 1. It shall be lawful for the register of the land office, and he is hereby required to deliver any land office treasury warrant which may be in his office, in part only executed, to the owner thereof, or his order. Persons applying for such warrant to produce a certificate. Sec. 2. Provided always, That the person applying for such warrant, shall produce to the register, a certificate signed by some principal surveyor, who shall have acted ton part of said warrant, specifying how much thereof hath been executed, and also what balance remains unexecuted; which certificate, together with the owner's name, quantity of acres, and number of the warrant, shall be entered by the register, in a book to be kept for that purpose, and no grant shall ever thereafter issue upon the balance of any warrant so certified to be executed; and the register shall moreover deliver to the party, the surveyor's certificates and also endorse on the warrant delivered, the quantity of acres surveyed and returned to his office upon a part of such warrant, and that a certain balance thereof remains unexecuted. To be continued. (c) Copyright 13 April 1999, Sandra K. Gorin, All rights reserved. sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Col. 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