A wonderful cousin of mine had the foresight to write to the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Here is their answer. I think that they may be right on target. Another kind soul sent me similar information. Thank you all!!! Maybe this will help someone else. Here is the answer from the Tennesee State Library.... "We've had several of our staff members working on your question concerning the Ninepenny Law, and we've found what we believe to be the answer. We searched a number of sources, but could not find any reference to the Ninepenny Law. Linsey's LAND LAWS OF TENNESSEE, which collects the early land laws for the state, does not list the law. We went through all of the early ACTS OF TENNESSEE for the time period prior to 1831, but again found no law that was referred to as the Ninepenny Law. None of the federal land laws we found uses this name. Even the amount paid for land during this time period -- twelve and a half cents per acre -- did not match up as nine pennies. It is possible that the actual law may not actually have the name "Ninepenny Law". It may be a popular name for a law. For example, the current Tennessee law concerning automobile warranties is referred to as "the Lemon Law", even though that is not its name. One of our staff members, Tom Kanon, has suggested the following as a possible answer to your question: The population in Tennessee during this time period was a mixture of cultures, Words used in one language were picked by others settlers in the area. There was no real hard currency circulating during this time period. It was not uncommon for Spanish money and English money to circulate between the settlers. According to WEBSTER'S THIRD INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY, ninepence was "the sum of nine (usually) British pennies". The dictionary also states that "ninepence" was in old Spanish "a coin worth twelve and a half cents". Remember that the amount paid per acre was twelve and a half cents. It's quite probable that the Spanish word "ninepence" was picked up by the settlers, since the coin was equal to the amount to be paid for the land. Over time, the Spanish word "ninepence" became the more Americanized word "ninepenny".