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Search the Land Records from All States, , View Property Reports Now! ,
The most commonly recorded deed is a deed
of bargain and sale , in which one individual sells property,
usually land, but occasionally personal property, to another
individual. Such
deeds show the names of the grantor and grantee, the residence
of both parties, a description of what is being sold, the
consideration, the location of the tract of land, the tract's
boundaries, and any limitations on the property being sold.
The deed was signed by the grantor, and possibly his wife
or anyone else having a claim to the property, and by at
least two witnesses. Appended to the deed may be a memorandum
of livery of seisin , stating that the property
has changed hands and that peaceful possession has taken
place. On presentation to the court, all forms of deeds
were proved and recorded. If the deed was not witnessed,
the grantor acknowledged the deed in open court.
Deeds of lease and release are often found
in the Northern Neck and older counties. The lease, for a nominal sum,
is followed by the release noting the actual sale price. The
lease may predate the release by a day, a week, or even a
year. Together the two documents make up a legal deed and
should not be confused with a simple lease to rent land. Deeds
of gift are often found transferring property, either real
or personal, from one individual to another "for love and
affection." The degree of kinship, if any, between
the grantor and grantee is sometimes stated. Tripartite
deeds are mortgages or deeds of trust where one party is
indebted to another and transfers or mortgages property to
a third party to secure the debt.
Under Virginia law, women were required to
relinquish their dower rights to real property being sold. If the wife
of the grantor or whoever held the dower claim did not appear
to relinquish her right, the court appointed two or more
individuals to go to her and inquire privately if she did
indeed understand and approve of the sale. Such relinquishments
were not always recorded with the deeds. They often
were recorded later in the deed books and are sometimes found
in other record books. Without such dower relinquishment,
the purchaser did not have clear title to the property.
Except for a few years early in the eighteenth
century, slaves in Virginia were considered personal property
and consequently were not usually sold by deed. However,
they were often transferred in deeds of gift or were property
listed in mortgages and deeds of trust.
Surveys, plats, and processioner's returns
are sometimes found in deed books. A plat is a graphic depiction of
a survey. Processioner's records describe the walking
and marking of property boundaries. Pre-Revolutionary
War processioner's records are found in the church vestry
books.
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Search the Virginia Land Records, 1639-1850
The original Virginia Charter,
granted to the Virginia Company of London in 1606, included
provisions for granting land to settlers, called planters,
and investors, called adventurers. The revised Charter of
1609 specified that planters were to receive fifty acres
and adventurers a hundred acres per share, but that all lands
were to be held in common for another seven years. About
1614, Sir Thomas Dale began rewarding industrious planters
with three-acre plots. John Rolfe's successful experiments
with tobacco led many planters to plant their “gardens” with
tobacco. Grants of land by the London Company began about
1616; the earliest surviving grant is to Simon Codrington
in March 1615/6. The Great Charter of 1618 divided Virginia
into four boroughs and set aside land within each borough
for public use. The governor and Council were given the
authority to allot land to individuals within the boroughs.
Two copies of each patent were made; one was given to the
grantee as proof of title, and the other was retained for
company records.
Virginia became a royal colony in 1624. In 1627 Sir
George Yeardley determined that, as governor, he had the
power to issue patents for settlers who met the old company definition
of a planter. In 1654 the Privy Council finally agreed,
and millions of acres were granted to individuals claiming headrights
during the seventeenth century.
The headright was the “right” to claim fifty
acres for every “head” arriving in the colony;
most headrights were claimed by the person who paid the
passage. Headrights of indentured servants may have been
claimed more than once: by the master of the transporting
ship, by the merchant who sold the indenture, by the person
who bought the indenture, and/or by the servant. Headrights
could be bought and sold; many people who paid their own
transportation sold their headrights for money to establish
themselves in the colony.
The patenting process required several steps, and most
of those steps generated a record. The prospective patentee
first petitioned the county court for a “certificate
of importation.” The certificate, often recorded in county
court minute books, was considered proof of the number of
headrights claimed. The patentee then carried the certificate
of importation to the Secretary of the Colony, who issued
a “right” of fifty acres per headright. Once he
had a “right,” the patentee took it to the county
surveyor, who surveyed the chosen land and created a plat.
The patentee returned all of these papers to the Secretary,
who made two copies of the patent. One was signed by the
governor, sealed, and delivered to the patentee. The other
copy was retained in the Secretary's office and was supposed
to be recorded.
Once the patent was issued, the patentee had three
years to seat and plant the land. “Seating” required
payment of the quitrent , an annual payment to the
crown of one shilling for every fifty acres. “Planting” required
either cultivating one acre or building a house and
keeping livestock. Orphans had three years after
their majority to seat and plant land. Widows could
get extensions of the three years by petitioning
the county court.
By the end of the seventeenth century, population growth
in the colony of Virginia no longer depended on immigration.
Native Virginians wanted new land for tobacco, and the crown
wanted to expand the colony, so the treasury right was created.
Anyone who wanted new land could receive a “right” to
fifty acres for a payment of five shillings. After about
1715, most land was patented by treasury right instead
of by headright.
Virginia grants and deeds are readily available to
researchers, including original patents and land grants
from 1619 to 1921; survey plats from 1779 to 1878; Northern Neck
(the area between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers)
land grants from 1690 to 1862; Northern Neck surveys from 1722
to 1781 and 1786 to 1874; land warrants from 1779 to 1926;
and miscellaneous land records from 1779 to 1923. Original land office records
are housed at The Library of Virginia. Many patents have been abstracted and published.
Colonial Wars Bounty Lands: As early as 1630, the governor's Council offered grants of land to persons who settled on the frontier. In 1646, the Council issued patents to the fort captains and men for the lands on which outlying forts were built along with the lands surrounding the forts. And, in 1701, in an unsuccessful attempt to garrison the frontier, patents equal to four times the headright were offered to groups of men who would undertake the defense of the frontier. None of these offers met with a great deal of success.
Later in the colonial period, bounty lands were offered as an incentive or reward to men who performed military service during the French and Indian War; however, the area in which the land was available was closed by the Proclamation of 1763, so it was not until 1779, and after, that the bounty was actually awarded.
Those persons who performed requisite service had first to obtain a certificate showing proof of that service; some of these certificates were signed in 1774 by Lord Dunmore but most came from county courts in 1779 and 1780. These certificates show the name of the solder; his rank, unit, and length of service; the county in which his service was proved (which was not necessarily his county of residence); the number of the certificate; and any assignment made on the certificate up to the time the warrant was issued.
The land granted on the basis of colonial wars service was in Virginia counties and the resulting grants are searchable through the Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants/Northern Neck Grants and Surveys.
Beware, however, that many colonial soldiers assigned their warrant to speculators or others interested in moving west. All records pertaining to colonial bounty land service are available in manuscript form only.
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Excerpts From the Book "Family History Made Easy"
Prior to the Civil War, more than eighty-five percent of all Americans owned or leased land. Therefore, almost every researcher, whether a seasoned professional or weekend hobbyist, has required land records to document the existence, association, or movement of an individual or ancestral family. While many researchers may feel a sense of historical excitement when finding an ancestor in a land deed, many also fail to understand the importance of such a document and how land can be used to make vital links between generations; they are not aware that it can bridge distant origins and help solve even the most difficult problems. E. Wade Hone,
In Land and Property Research in the United States
U.S. House of Representative Private Claims, Vol. 1, Vol. 2 or Vol. 3
The right to own land has always been one of the great incentives for living in the United States. Yet researchers often overlook the importance of land records as a source of family history information. Written evidence of people’s entitlement goes back in time further than virtually any other type of record family historians might use.
Land records meet the needs of researchers in different ways and contain a variety of genealogical and historical data. They are a major source of information for many family histories and provide primary source material for local history as well. They are closely related to probate and other official court records and should be investigated in connection with them. Land and property are leading issues in the settlement of estates, and the majority of civil cases in the courts deal with real and personal property. Although land records rarely yield vital statistics, in many instances they provide the only proof of family relationships. Often they include the names of heirs of an estate (including daughters’ married names and a widow’s subsequent married name) and refer to related probates and other court cases by number and court name. In some places where other records are scarce, the land records take on extra importance. Occasionally these documents disclose former residences and more often provide the new address of the grantors or heirs at the time of the sale of the property.
Land records provide two types of important evidence for the family historian. First, they often document family relationships. Second, they place individuals in a specific time and place, allowing the researcher to sort people and families into neighborhoods and closely related groups. One of land records’ most important qualities is that they are sometimes the only records that allow us to distinguish one person of a common name from another.
The National Archives has bounty-land warrant files, donation land entry files, homestead application files, and private land claim files relating to the entry of individual settlers on land in the public land states. There are no land records for the original thirteen states or for Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Hawaii. Records for these states are maintained by state officials, usually in the state capital. Searching for the record of a particular land grant from the federal government requires contacting both the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Archives (NARA).
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