The quest for land ownership (in addition
to religious freedom) was perhaps one of the greatest driving forces upon our
ancestors in their quest for a life in this, the new world. As a matter of
reference I will include here an historical perspective on land and ownership.
The following information was obtained from an Arkansas Genealogy web site on
the Internet, and was authored by several people:
“The Feudal Land System - English
common law dealing with land ownership was based on the feudal system in which
the monarch owned all the land but allowed favored individuals the use of it,
as tenants, in exchange for service. The tenancies were called
"feuds", "fees", or "fiefs", and the tenants
would further pass on rights down to others in their retinue. King to
overlords, overlords to vassals, vassals to serfs.
“The service one rendered in exchange
for land 'ownership' could be anything from military service to the King, or
it could be a 'sergeantry' such as delivering grain. Over time, the giving of
service was replaced by something we're all familiar with today: giving of
taxes! Virginia quitrents (rent paid by a freeholder or copyholder in lieu of
services that might otherwise have been required) were a vestigial example of
this.
“The key points of the feudal system
were that ultimately the King retained control, and that payment of some kind
was made. True personal land ownership was impossible because the title one
held was always subservient to the King.
“Now, an important issue in this
system was whether the tenancy one enjoyed was "heritable", that is,
able to be passed to an heir or heirs. A variety of different types of
'ownership' came into being to allow for flexibility in this regard. For
example, land held in 'fee simple' was heritable, meaning that the heirs would
continue to enjoy the tenancy (provided of course they continued to render
service).
“Acquiring Land in the U.S. - America
was 'new land', seemingly infinite in size, and it presented a new situation
as far as land ownership was concerned. In order to get the Colonies to grow,
inducements such as personal land ownership were made to settlers. What a
concept! Normal people could easily acquire land in return for settling it. It
didn't happen overnight, but the arcane feudal land systems were gradually
dropped in favor of direct grants to individuals.
“Who controlled the granting of all
this land? The answer is a sequence of royal, colonial, state, and federal
laws. In earliest times, the English, Dutch, and French crowns controlled the
granting of land, normally through each colony's government, but sometimes
through agents, proprietors, companies, or partnerships. Basically, the King
claimed ownership of the colonial land, and distributed it according to a
variety of laws subject to his approval.”
