LAND GRANT PROCESS Patent and Grant are used interchangeably. Some people like to refer to patents as colonial grants and to grants as state grants. TWO SOURCES OF COLONIAL GRANTS: · Proprietary Grants: Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North & South Carolina, Maine, New Hampshire, Virginias Northern Neck. · Crown Grants: Virginia, Massachusetts, North Carolina after 1729, South Carolina after 1719. · Some other sources of land e.g., leases from Indians usually later formalized as patents. GENERAL PROCESS: Not all colonies followed precisely the same process, but patents generally involved several steps. These steps took time and money: · Entry − also called a claim, application, or petition. This involved marking the proposed boundaries and notifying the granting authority of the desire to claim the land. Generally a fee was required. · Waiting period At some stage of the process, other claimants or neighbors could identify disputes (caveats). Some waiting periods were built-in, patents being processed in periodic batches rather than immediately after submission. · Warrant - An order by the granting authority entitling the land to be surveyed. Sometimes an order directly to the surveyor. · Survey later called a plat. A fee was required to the surveyor. The survey was either copied into or attached to the final grant documents. · Patent - the formal issuance & recording of the title. Always recorded in a central location and often also at the county level. Generally several fees were required. As with nearly all old records, what exists today is a transcription of the patents rather than the original. Be alert for clerical errors. SOURCES FOR VIRGINIA PATENTS · Virginia colonial grants (both Crown and Northern Neck) are available online at http://www.lva.lib.va.us/dlp/land/ · Crown grants are available in abstracted form in Cavaliers and Pioneers. o 1623 to 1666 (Volume 1) First three volumes by Nell Marion Nugent o 1666 to 1695 (Volume 2 o 1695 to 1732 (Volume 3) o 1733 to 1774 (Volumes 4-7) by Dennis Ray Hudgins and The Virginia Genealogical Society. · Northern Neck Grants (between Potomac and Rappahannock) abstracted in Northern Neck, Virginia, Land Grants, by Gertrude E. Gray o 1694 to 1742 (Volume 1) o 1742 to 1775 (Volume 2) - Volumes 3 and 4 are state grants in the same geography o Earlier grants in Northern Neck Grants No. 1, 1690-1692 (Note that not all these grants were preserved. There are patents recorded in county books that do not exist in the colonial books. How many are missing is unknown.) · Several abstract books are organized by county e.g. Early Virginia Families Along the James covers Henrico and Goochland counties. · Some online transcripts available at: http://www.ultranet.com/~deeds/pool.htm