As the new prime holder of all
land the state, in the years following the Revolutionary War, found it imperative to establish procedures by which
settlers could acquire grants. The General Assembly directed the Justices
of the Peace in each county to elect a clerk to receive entries and a
surveyor. It decreed:
"It shall be unlawful for any citizen to
take up a claim for any lands which have not been granted by the Crown of
Great Britain, or the Lords Proprietors of Carolina before the Fourth day
of July, 1776, or which have accrued or shall accrue to this State by
Treaty of Conquest...Provided that no Person shall be entitled to claim
any greater quantity of land than six hundred forty acres where the survey
shall be bounded in any part by vacant lands, or more than one thousand
acres between the lines of lands already surveyed and laid out for any
other person.
...every person shall pay into the hands of
the entry taker Two Pounds ten shillings for every Hundred acres, together
with the fees...
... Provided that any person claiming six hundred forty acres for
himself and one hundred acres for his wife and each of his children shall
pay 5 pounds for every one hundred acres exceeding six hundred forty
acres."
The Assembly directed the entry taker to place
each application for land in a record book. If no other claimant appeared
within three months, a warrant would be issued to the surveyor. Counter
claims would be settled by the County Court. Persons possessing lands
applied for at the old Public Land Office of the Crown, or from the Earl
of Granville, for which patents had not been issued, would receive
priority.
When a surveyor received a warrant, he located the
boundaries with the aid of the claimants by placing conspicuous marks on
prominent trees. Then he took note of distinctive geographic features,
made two plats of his survey, filed one plat with the warrant ant submitted
the other for attachment to the patent. Patents were authenticated by the governor,
counter-signed by the Secretary of State, and issued semi-annually on
April 1 and October 1. The grantee then had one year in which to register
his grant at the County Courthouse. If he did not do so, it became void.
This procedure, except for minor changes, continued until 1960, at which
time the Secretary of State transferred certain responsibilities to the
Department of Administration.
In 1779 the Assembly amended the land office act
for the benefit of people who had settled in the Granville District. It
decreed:
"If it shall appear that any Person hath
seated himself on Lands within the Bounds of any former Entry of Survey,
and for which no Grant was ever obtained, and hath improved and continued
in peaceful possession of the same...for seven Years, without interruption
by or from the person claiming or Declaration of Rights to the Person so
possessed under such Entry, or Survey, in such case, the person claiming
under such former entry or survey, shall be forever barred of his right of
entry of the Land in Question, and the preference shall be given to him
who settled on, and continued in peaceable possession of the same..."
By this action the legislature reaffirmed the possession
act of 1715, chapter 27. The seven-year period only applied in claims
against other private parties. In claims against the State, uncontested
possessions for at least twenty years had to be shown.
The demand for land continued until 1780. By then
paper currency had become unduly inflated. The legislature attempted to
relieve the situation by making a portion of each soldier's bonus payable
in land. Then in 1783 the General Assembly tied its currency and land
problems together. It made all public land, except the military reserve,
security for a new issue of currency at the rate of 100 acres for each ten
pounds.
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Sample Survey |
|
Pomeroy, Kenneth B. and James G. Yoho. North Carolina Lands:
Ownership, Use, and Management of Forest and Related Lands. Washington,
D.C.: The American Forestry Association, 1964, pp. 76-77. |