The Library of Virginia's Digital Library Program has completed the creation
of a fully searchable database to the Virginia Land Office Patents and
Grants Collection.  The database consists of 161,467 records and links to
the digital images of the original documents.

The URL for the Digital Library Program is
http://www.lva.lib.va.us/dlp/index.htm

In 1606, King James I issued a charter that created the Virginia Company of
London, to colonize the land in Virginia between 30 degrees and 45 degrees
north latitude, extending inland for 50 miles.  Those going to the New World
to reside would receive acres of land to cultivate for private use or for
profit.  The next year, the first permanent English settlement in this
hemisphere was made at Jamestown.   In 1618, four boroughs were created, and
land was set aside in each borough for the support of the magistracy and the
church, and in Henricus, a proposed college.

Two copies were made of a patent giving title to a piece of land.  One copy
was given to the grantee, and the other copy was filed among the records of
the Company in the colony.  In 1620, as a further safeguard, the Company
decreed that second copies of grants should be sent to London to be sealed
in open court.  Despite such precautions, very few of the early patents are
extant.  Those sent to London, like other of the Company's records,
mysteriously disappeared from its offices in 1624.  Those kept in the colony
were destroyed through such catastrophes as the 1622 massacre and Nathaniel
Bacon's burning of Jamestown.

After 1624, patents of fifty (50) acres were granted to persons who paid to
transport emigrants to Virginia (this method, known as the headright system,
was employed as the major means of distributing virgin lands in the 17th
century), and each patent was conditioned on the annual payment to the crown
of one shilling for each fifty acres owned, and the building of a house and
keeping of stock, or the cultivation of an acre of ground within three (3)
years.

A survey was completed for each tract, then the written patent was issued.
The second copy of each patent was retained by the secretary for the
records, where they were hung on strings in the office.  From time to time,
the secretary would select a few patents and record them in bound volumes.
The earliest patent in existence is dated 1619; many patents were never
recorded, probably due to  leaves torn from the strings on which they had
been hung.

By 1715, the headright system was abandoned, and persons could purchase land
outright.  Limits were placed on the number of acres that could be purchased
by one individual; for example, a person was required to own at least five
or more tithable servants or slaves to obtain a single patent for more than
500 acres.    After the Revolutionary War, Virginia's Revolutionary
Convention resulted in the creation of the General Assembly, which
established the Land Office in 1779.  The Act establishing the office was so
thorough that no major change in Virginia's method of distribution of virgin
land was made until the mid-20th century.  When Kentucky and West Virginia
became states, Virginia lost most of her remaining vacant land.

In 1948, the records of the Land Office, which were then in the custody of
the Secretary of the Commonwealth, were transferred to the State Library
and, by Act of Assembly, March 5, 1952, the duties of the Register of the
Land Office were transferred from the Secretary of the Commonwealth to the
State Librarian. Following the reorganization of the Land Office, the
localities were charged with the issuing of titles to vacant lands, while
the state only issued grants for escheated lands, primarily for non-payment
of taxes.

Colonial Land Office patents were consistent in format.  Each patent
consisted of the name of the patentee, the size of the tract, the county in
which the land was located, the description of the land, any reservations
for the crown, and the date on which the document was signed.




--
Elizabeth Roderick                   email ([log in to unmask])
Director, Digital Library Program    voice  (804) 692-3761
The Library of Virginia              fax    (804) 692-3771
800 E. Broad Street
Richmond, VA  23218

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                           The Digital Library Program

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