In March, this query was posted: From: Janmim@aol.com   To: VA-SOUTHSIDE-L@rootsweb.com   Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 3:37 PM   Subject: [VA-SOUTHSIDE-L] 1700s -- Patents/LandGrants/Squatters???   Virginia Researchers,   In m continuing search for the ancestors of my Thomas Cooper, who was  first   with his father of same name, Ablbemarle by 1746 , then Bedford then Henry Co   VA until he moved to GA  ca 1791/2...I have located his father I am sure in   Albemarle Co 1746..road orders.  Involving LYNCH and CAFFREy.   I have two questions...(1) Could an individual "settle" on land, ie squat,   for a period of time before he patented land...as they did in the midwest.   (2) This is the same question, but a different way and is more "historical"   in nature...in the 1700s did our ancestors move west (ie from couties within   30 miles of the Chesapeake) and settle on land that they did not seek patents   for until many years  later.   My Best Regards.....Janet (Baugh) Hunter Response: The address is no longer valid. Therefore, I am sending to the list. Responses/corrections welcomed. Hello, I've been traveling--checking up on my living relatives, for a change. Therefore, I missed your earlier posting about the possibility of people squatting on land before it was settled/patented. My understanding is that in order to patent land in Virginia there were several processes which took place: First, the settler/patentee (we hope) got a WARRANT (from the government--the Crown, in pre-Revolutionary Virginia). This indicated he was thinking about acquiring a certain piece of property. Second, he then got a SURVEY. Which means he had to hire a surveyor and point out the land he wanted. I'm sure it was more complicated than this. The land surveyed didn't always get settled, the person/proposed patentee sometime assigning the survey to another party (or perhaps giving up the idea). Third, after settling on the land and clearing a certain portion of it, the settler then could file for a patent. If he did not *seat* the land, then the land escheated--went back to the government. If you can get hold of some early volumes of Nell Marion Nugent's books called Cavaliers and Pioneers (widely available), there is an explanation in the preface of one of the volumes explaining the process. I'm certain the process is much more complex than I have indicated. I attended last October a lecture on KY land grants, given by a top-notch lady of the Kentucky Land Office in Frankfort. She made us repeat several times: Warrant, Survey, Grant. Since Kentucky is a sister state of Virginia (establ. as a state in 1792), I'm sure the same procedure was followed in Virginia. Land grants in the Northern Neck were different than those in the other parts of the State. This was land between the Potomac and the Rappahannock and belonged after a certain date to the Lord Fairfax estate (and his heirs). Those early grants are found in Cavaliers & Pioneers (such as for Northumberland Co.), but later ones are separate. If interested, write me back. E.W.Wallace southern California who has spent LOTS of time with Cavaliers & Pioneers trying to figure out neighbors, watercourses, etc.