Land grants

What are land grants?

In general, a patent or “land grant” is a government giving “vacant” land to someone, compared to a deed being the sale or transfer by one owner to another.

Land might not really be vacant, because there might already be someone living there, or in many cases, Native Americans.
- Example: the eight land lotteries in Georgia between 1805 and 1833 distributed land forcibly taken from the Creek Indians and Cherokee Nation.

An excellent exposition of the history of land grants, particularly highlighting the difficulties for eastern Tennessee, is at Tennessee Archives.

Entry: ask for the land.
- Three-month review period to see if anyone objects.
- Caveat or warrant recorded.
Warrant: go survey the land. Surveys contain relative location, relationship to existing properties, metes and bounds to circumscribe the area.
- Abbreviations: CC=chain carrier, CB=chain bearer, and these were probably folks local to the land being surveyed.
- More FAN club info.
Patent. Conveyance of the land, with a paper copy sent to the grantee.

There were 2412 grants issued in Chatham County from 1719 to 1928.

Searchable data for 216,000 land grants including names, dates and locations for years 1663 through 1960, including 10,000 grants in what is now Tennessee.
51,000 Images of all 200+ existing Land Patent Books with complete metes and bounds for each patent (Unique to this website!).
200,000 Images of loose documents (surveys, warrants, receipts) for a number of NC counties, with more on the way.
41,000 Images of all Granville District Grants including signed deeds, warrants, and surveys (Unique to this website!).

Mr. McCorkle credits the land grant info to the State Archives of North Carolina. See also the Tennessee explanation of land grants in what is now Tennessee.