Colonial Petitions for Land Resurveys, Some Land Warrants and Caveats of Land Warrants, 1767-1773

By: Dr. A.B. Pruitt, Pub. 1993, reprinted 2026, 224 pages, Index, soft cover, ISBN #978-0-94499-247-0. This book contains 370 abstracts of (1) petitions for resurvey of land in North Carolina, (2) some1,299 land warrants issued between 1753 and 1774, & (3) 94 caveats of land grants between 1767 and 1773. It covers the counties of Anson, Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Craven, Cumberland, Currituck, Dobbs, Duplin, Edgecombe, Halifax, Hyde, Johnston, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Onslow, Orange, Pitt, and Tryon. The first part contains abstracts of petitions to North Carolina’s Governor or the Governor and the King’s Council. Resurveys of grants were to use the marked trees and natural bounds mentioned in the grant, if they could be found; otherwise, the surveyor was to follow the courses and distances mentioned in the grant. The second part covers abstracts of Land warrants with varying degrees of information about the date, warrantee, & land. The warrants in this book are included here so they will be more readily available to interested people. Many of these warrants aren’t dated. In other cases, the number of acres in the warrant, warrant date, number of acres in the grant, grant date, & person who received the money for recording the warrant [or his initials] are indicated. Unfortunately, it isn’t always clear whose name goes with the initials. The last part coverts the land caveats in 1753 and between 1767 and 1773. Caveats were petitions to the Governor and King’s Council [called the Court of Claims when they met to discuss land matters]. These petitions were made to try to stop a grant from issuing. When the Council agreed with the petition, a trial would be ordered on the land as opposed to a trial in the county courthouse. When a decision was reached, the winner would need to present a copy of the verdict to the Council so they would issue a warrant for survey and, later, a grant could issue. The “drawback” to the caveats is that they lack all the details of the case. The surviving records usually mention the plaintiff, defendant, and a brief description of the land. It is often difficult to locate county court records to determine the winner in each case, or even if a trial was held at all. A method to determine who won may be to consult the colonial grant and try to find if either party received a grant for all or part of the disputed land. As with all land grants, the grantee had to pay the surveyor’s fees and colony’s fees. Some grants may not have issued because these fees weren’t paid even though a trial was held. On some occasions, the plaintiff may have already owned the disputed land; these grants are dated prior to the caveat and may be for more or less land than the amount in the caveat.