The question was asked, "When could a man say that he owned the land specified in a grant?" As soon as he received his copy of the grant, he should have felt secure in saying it was his land; however, then as now, if you do not pay your taxes on the land, the state may take it away from you. If you did not pay the Northern Neck Proprietor the one shilling per fifty acres every year, then he could take the land back. So it was your land as long as you stayed current on your "tax" money.
All of those warrants and loose pieces of paper, that were filed with the Northern Neck Proprietor to support the grantee's right to have the grant issued in his (or her) name, ended up at the Library of Virginia. Peggy Shomo Joyner pulled these all together in a series of books. I have found them to be some of the best bedtime reading there is. Looking first in the book for Culpeper Co. and Augusta Co., for the period 1730 to 1754, here are some typical items:
John Button, 6 Aug 1747 8 Oct 1747; 100 a. in the Little Fork "where he now lives". CC: Frederick Fishbeg & James Williams. Surv. George Hume. [The two dates are of the warrant and of the survey. CC stands for chain carriers, the men who carried the heavy chains of the surveyor. This was hard work. I have been impressed by the number of times that the grantee asked a relative to carry the chains. As we look at some of these warrants, I know some of the relationships and will call them out. Perhaps readers can add to the information. Fishbeg is a misspelling of Fishback.]Joseph Coant/Count, 7 Oct 1747 7 Oct 1747 [sic], [one document had the survey for both Count and John Crim. Crim's dates were 6 Aug 1747, 7 Oct 1747]; CC for both surveys: Frederick Fishbeg and Jno Button. Surv. George Hume. [The same names appear here as in Button grant.]
Henry Eiler [Aylor], 7 Mar 1747 4 Aug 1748; adj. Micael Kook/Cook, Capt. Rousie, Robert Tanner's pat. CC: Christopher Tanner & Michael Thomas. Surv. George Hume. [Only recently, after two hundred and fifty years, was it realized that Michael Thomas was Henry Aylor's brother-in-law. Christopher Tanner was also a brother-in-law of Henry.]
Frederick Fishback, 6 Aug 1747 6 Oct 1747. CC: Jno Crim & Jno Button. [The same names appear again] Surv. George Hume.
Andrew Gaar, 6 Aug 1747 21 Sept 1747; adj. Michael Smith, Theobald Critler [Crisler] Michael Caver [Kaifer], Adam Gaar. CC: Adam Gaar, John Couts. Pilot: Lorentz Gaar. Surv. James Genn. [Adam and Lorentz were sons of Andrew Gaar. The name Couts is not recognized.]
If anyone can fill in on the ones that I do not know, please speak up.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.