Lath by N Roll Philad

ETLUN DUX.SKLAR THES ET PR

ORIDA OCCIDENTALIS

Plate!

Page 117.

VINCIA NOSTRA FLORIDA

II. LAND TITLES.

A KNOWLEDGE of the origin and character of the various titles by which lands are held, or have been claimed in this State, cannot be without interest or utility to every planter or landed proprietor in it. The following brief outline, therefore, the design of which is to supply this information, will not, it is presumed, be deemed superfluous or out of place.

The first grant of land of which we have any account, was that most stupendous one made on the 13th of October, 1630, by Charles the First of Great Britain, to Sir Robert Heath, of which all that part of the State lying north of the thirty-first degree of north latitude, formed an inconsiderable portion. In 1637, Heath transferred his grant to Lord Maltravers, and it subsequently became the property of a Doctor Daniel Coxe, of the province of New Jersey; and in 1699, the same year that the French established themselves at Baluxi under Iberville, his title was recognized and reported upon as valid by the attorney-general of King William.

How the attempt of Coxe, the proprietor, to take possession and occupy it in the latter year, by sending two ships up the Mississippi under Captain Barr, was frus

issued by the governor to the Surveyor-General Don Carlos Trudeau, to cause the land prayed for to be surveyed and put into possession of the petitioner. This duty was performed by the deputy-surveyor of the district, and the survey being approved and returned, accompanied by a plat, the governor thereupon granted his patent; the usual fees being paid in all the stages of the process by the grantee.

The first warrant or order of survey was issued on the 20th of April, 1784, by Don Estevan Miro, who continued to officiate as governor, and to make grants until the 29th of August, 1791. He was succeeded by Francis Louis Hector El Baron de Carondelet, by whom grants were made from the 8th of March, 1792, to the 1st of September, 1795. All the patents bear the private seal with the coat of arms of the governor, and are countersigned by the secretary Andrez Lopes Armesto. (See PLATE II.)

It has been objected that the extension of the limits of West Florida, by the British government, to the Yazoo River, was an infringement of colonial charters or grants previously made, and that the titles to land made in that portion of the State were necessarily void. Spain, also, in wresting by conquest from Great Britain the same territory, not truly belonging to her, acquired no title thereto to the prejudice of the previous and rightful holders; the Spanish grants, therefore, to the same extent, were equally invalid.

This position was subsequently affirmed by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, and was borne out and admitted, virtually, in the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, fixing the southern boundary of the independent colonies along the thirty-first degree of north latitude; and by the

Facsimilies of signatures and seals of the Spanish

GOVERNORS of LOUISIANA

BLCWailes det

On Stone by M Rosenthal

Crumo Lub by 1 N Rosenthal Phila

Plate II.