A person did not have to live on the land to obtain the patent - but he had to settle the land within three years and pay the taxes in order to keep it. Bev *** or pay someone else to "put it under the plow" and construct a habitable cabin and occupy it. Many speculators from VA (and elsewhere) never saw their patent land, yet "seated" it as said, and by sale, land contract, or otherwise developed the land and sold it off.

Paul, I suppose with the requirements you mentioned some one had to verify their fulfillment and/or completion. Did the land office have inspectors who rode around looking for those in compliance or those not in compliance? Who in VA made the ultimate decision that a person or family was in compliance and got to keep their land, or if not, had to move? I can see where three years of hard labor and three years of taxes but a bit shy of some requirement resulting in forfeiture of a patent or grant would put the whole controversy in some Court. Are there records of those proceedings? Rex -----Original Message----- From: Paul Drake [mailto:pauldrake@charter.net] Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 1:39 PM To: VAROOTS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [VAROOTS] Cavaliers and Pioneers A person did not have to live on the land to obtain the patent - but he had to settle the land within three years and pay the taxes in order to keep it. Bev *** or pay someone else to "put it under the plow" and construct a habitable cabin and occupy it. Many speculators from VA (and elsewhere) never saw their patent land, yet "seated" it as said, and by sale, land contract, or otherwise developed the land and sold it off. ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237