There are numerous instances of "lost patents." Causes include at least five fires and references to mismanagement. Records of land distributed prior to the repeal of the Virginia Company's charter essentially do not survive. There were two at least state house fires prior to October 1666 ( Hening, Statutes, 2:245). Bacon's 1676 burning of the statehouse apparently also resulted in record loss (Virginia Land Office Patent Book 7, p. 43.). It was followed by a fourth fire on 20 Oct 1698 (McIlwaine, ed., /Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia/, 1:392. ), an apparent fifth in 1699 (McIlwaine, ed., Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, 3:193). A sixth fire on 30 Jan 1747 was followed by the erection of a separate building to hold the Secretary's records. There appears to have been no record loss in the evacuation of Richmond during the Revolutionary War; however Hening notes "in books labelled ‘Bonds, Commissions, Deposition, &c.’ there are several hundred patents which ought to have been recorded in the books now in the Register’s Office, besides a variety of other papers which no one could expect to find under such titles. This fact will probably account for the many unsuccessful applications at the Register's Office, for ancient patents, they being improperly recorded in books, now in the office of the clerk of the general court." (Hening, Statutes, 2:509). His source was probably a court suit either in the few surviving for Caroline or in the Fredericksburg District court records. The land likely (based on Dennis Hudgins' work) was in the in the southeast partr of Caroline between Maracossic Creek and the Mattaponi originally patented to Joshua Story and William Morris. Barbara Vines Little, CG, FNGS, FUGA, FVGS PO Box 1273 Orange, VA 22960 540-832-3473 [log in to unmask] CG, Certified Genealogist, is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board-certified genealogists after periodic evaluation; the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. On 8/10/2023 7:19 PM, Arend Flick wrote: > Would someone happen to know if there were seventeenth century land patents > or grants that simply didn't make it into the patent books or *Cavaliers > and Pioneers*? I am befuddled by a very specific reference in T. E. > Campbell's book on Caroline County (*Colonial Caroline*), published in > 1954, to a grant to a Thomas Hoomes in 1667 for 3000 acres "On a swamp > leading into north bank of the Mattapony, below the Lewis grant." There is > absolutely no record of this grant in the patent books (that I can find) or > in *C & P*. Perhaps Campbell, researching in Caroline in the late 40s or > early 50s, had access to some sort of county record (or whatever) that just > didn't make it into any of the usual sources? This is not the only large > grant he refers to in very specific terms that I simply can't find evidence > of elsewhere. (Some confusion, by the way, between "Hoomes" and "Holmes"--a > Thomas Holmes did a lot of patenting NE of this area at about the same time. > > Thanks for any help! > > Arend Flick > > ______________________________________ > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at > https://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html > > This list is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). > ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at https://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html This list is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).