OF THE TENURE BY WHICH THEY HOLD THEIR LANDS, AND OF THEIR GRANTS.
Sec. 56. The tenure of their land there is free and common soccage,
according to custom of east Greenwich; and is created by letters
patents, issuing under the seal of the colony, and under the test of the
governor in chief for the time being. I don't find that the name of any
other officer is necessary to make the patent valid.
Sec. 57. There are three ways of obtaining from his majesty a title to land
there, viz: 1. By taking a patent upon a survey of new land. 2. By
petition for land lapsed. 3. By petition for land escheated. The
conditions of the two former are the entry of rights; the condition of
the third a composition of two pounds of tobacco for every acre.
Sec. 58. A right is a title any one hath by the royal charter to fifty
acres of land, in consideration of his personal transportation into that
country, to settle and remain there; by this rule also, a man that
removes his family is entitled to the same number of acres for his wife,
and each of his children; a right may be also obtained by paying five
shillings, according to a late royal instruction to the government.
Sec. 59. A patent upon land for survey is acquired thus: 1. The man proves
his rights; that is, he makes oath in court of the importation of so
many persons, with a list of their names. This list is then certified by
the clerk of that court to the clerk of the secretary's office, who
examines into the validity of them, and files them in that office,
attesting them to be regular, or he purchases them at five shillings
each as aforesaid. When the rights are thus obtained, they are produced
to the surveyor of the county, and the land is showed to him; who,
thereupon, is bound to make the survey if the land had not been patented
before. These rights to land are as commonly sold by one man to another,
as the land itself; so that any one, not having rights by his own
importation, may have them by purchase.
It is the business of the surveyor also to take care that the bounds of
his survey be plainly marked, either by natural boundaries, or else by
chopping notches in the trees, that happen in the lines of his courses;
but this is done at the charge of the man that employs him.
This survey being made, a copy thereof is carried, with a certificate of
rights to the secretary's office, and there (if there be no objection) a
patent of course is made out upon it, which is presented to the governor
and council for them to pass; the patentee having no more to do but to
send for it when it is perfected, and to pay the fee at the first crop
to the sheriff of the county, by whom annually the fees are collected.
This patent gives an estate in fee simple, upon condition of paying a
quit rent of twelve pence for every fifty acres, and of planting or
seating thereon, within three years, according to their law; that is, to
clear, plant, and tend three acres of ground for every fifty, and to
build an house, and keep a stock of cattle, sheep, or goats, in
proportion to the meaner part of the land in the patent.
Sec. 60. Lapsed land, is when any one having obtained a patent as before,
doth not set or plant thereon within three years, as the condition of
the patent requires; but leaves it still all or part uninhabited and
uncultivated. In such case it is said to be lapsed, and any man is at
liberty to obtain a new patent in his own name of so much as is lapsed,
the method of acquiring which patent is thus.
The party must apply himself by petition to the general court, another
to the governor, setting forth all the circumstances of the lapse. If
this petition be allowed, the court makes an order, to certify the same
to the governor, in whose breast it is then to make a new grant thereof
to such person if he thinks they deserve it, upon the same condition, of
setting or planting within three years, as was in the former patent.
Thus land may be lapsed or lost several times, by the negligence of the
patentees; who, by such omission, lose not only the land, but all their
rights and charges into the bargain.
But if within the three years after the date of the patent, or before
any new petition is preferred for it, the patentee shall set or plant
the said land, as the law directs; it cannot afterwards be forfeited,
but by attainder, or escheat, in which case it returns to his majesty
again.
Also when it happens, that the patentee dies within the three years,
leaving the heir under age, there is farther time given the heir after
he comes of age to set and save such land.
Sec. 61. When land is suggested to escheat, the governor issues his warrant
to the escheator, to make inquest thereof: and when upon such inquest,
office is found for the king, it must be recorded in the secretary's
office, and there kept nine months, to see if any person will lay claim
to it, or can traverse the escheat. If any such appear, upon his
petition to the general court he is heard, before any grant can be made.
If no person oppose the inquest, the land is given to the man that shews
the best equitable right thereto; and if there be none such, it is then
granted to any one, that the governor and council shall think fit, the
grantee always paying two pounds of tobacco per acre into the treasury
of the country, as a fine of composition with his majesty for his
escheat: and thereupon a patent issues reciting premises.