Land grant

A land grant is a gift of real estate – land or its privileges – made by a government or other authority as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants of land are also awarded to individuals and companies as incentives to develop unused land in relatively unpopulated countries; the process of awarding land grants is not limited to the countries named below.

Ancient Rome

Roman soldiers were given pensions (praemia) at the end of their service including cash or land. Augustus fixed the amount in AD 5 at 3,000 denarii and by the time of Caracalla it had risen to 5,000 denarii.^[1] One denarius was roughly equivalent to a day's wages for an unskilled laborer.

Australia

Starting from 1788, the British crown granted land to released convicts in the colony of New South Wales.^[2]

Males were allowed 30 acres (12 ha), plus 20 acres (8.1 ha) if they were married, and 10 acres (4.0 ha) additional per child. Instructions were issued on 20 August 1789 that non-commissioned Marine Officers were to be entitled to 100 acres (40 ha) additional and privates to 50 acres (20 ha) additional.

Governor Macquarie canceled land grants issued during the Rum Rebellion 1808-09, although some were later renewed.

Land grants started to be phased out when private tendering was introduced, and stricter limits were placed on grants without purchase. The instructions to Governor Brisbane were issued on 17 July 1825. Eventually, on 9 January 1831, Viscount Goderich commanded that all land was to be sold at public auction.

There were also significant land grants in the Swan River Colony, and in Van Diemen's Land from 1803.

Land Grant Railways

• In 1886, the Midland Railway of Western Australia was granted land concessions to build and operate a railway from Midland, near Perth, to Walkaway, near Geraldton. This was built, but taken over by the government railway in the 1950s. It was and is 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge.

• In 1889, a land grant railway was from Roebuck Bay in Western Australia to Angle Pole in the Northern Territory or South Australia was proposed. This would have been 1000 miles (1600 km) long. Angle Pole was a locality where the Telegraph line had bend in it. It was stillborn. The gauge would have been 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in).^[3]

• In 1897, a transcontinental North-South land grant railway was proposed to complete the missing link between Oodnadatta and Darwin, the latter then called Port Darwin. This was still-born, though the government railway was extended in the 1920s from Oodnadatta to Alice Springs, with similar extensions at the Darwin end. It was originally 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge, but was replaced by a new 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in) gauge line on a different route.

• In 1909, a land grant railway was proposed in Queensland from Charleville to Point Parker on the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, but this was stillborn.^[4]

Canada

The Hudson's Bay Company was incorporated in 1670 with the grant of Rupert's Land by King Charles II of England; this vast territory was greater than one third the area of Canada today. Following the Rupert's Land Act in the British Parliament, Rupert's Land was sold in 1869 to the newly formed Canadian Government for the nominal sum of £300,000.

Land grants were an incentive for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway

Ireland

The Plantations of Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries involved the confiscation of some or all the land of Irish lords and its grant to settlers ("planters") from England or Scotland. The English Parliament's Adventurers Act 1642 and Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 specifically entitled "Adventurers" who funded the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland to lands seized from the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the ensuing Confederacy.

United States

Virginia Land Office warrant issued in 1779 to Joseph Cabell, assignee of Sgt. Gabriel Penn, to receive 200 acres of land in return for Penn's service in the French and Indian War

In America, starting in the 16th century, land grants were given for the purpose of establishing settlements, missions, and farms. Countries granting land included Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Britain.

Under colonial law, a patentee had to improve the land. Under this doctrine of planting and seeding, the patentee was required to cultivate 1-acre (4,000 m²) of land and build a small house on the property, otherwise the patent would revert to the government.^[5]

Starting with the American Revolutionary War, United States veterans often received land grants in lieu of other remuneration.^[6]

Between 1783 and 1821, Spain offered land grants to anyone who settled in their colony of Florida. When that colony was transferred to the United States, the resulting treaty agreed to honor all valid land grants. As a result, years of litigation ensued over the validity of many of the Spanish Land Grants.

At the same time, Spain and Mexico were offering land grants along the Rio Grande River near the Texas/Mexico border. These grants were given to help colonization of the area by Mexican and Spanish nationals, and strengthen frontier towns along the Texas border.

During the Mexican period of California (and other portions of Mexican territories inherited from New Spain), hundreds of ranchos and large tracts of land were granted to individuals by the Mexican government. The ranchos established land-use patterns that are recognizable in the California of today.^[7]

Controversy over community land grant claims in New Mexico persist to this day.^[8]

During the 19th century, extensive land grants were made to railroads, since their development was seen as a new form of transportation internal improvements. The Land Grant Act of 1850 provided for 3.75 million acres of land to the states to support railroad projects; by 1857 21 million acres of public lands were used for railroads in the Mississippi River valley, and the stage was set for more substantial Congressional subsidies to future railroads.^[9] Four out of the five transcontinental railroads in the United States were built using land grant incentives.

The Morrill Land-Grant Acts of 1862 and 1890 provided for the establishment of land-grant colleges.

See also

• Atrisco Land Grant
• Enclosure
• Fee (feudal tenure)
• Land patent
• Land reform
• Land-grant university
• Military Tract of 1812
• Province of Carolina
• Ranchos of California
• Sea-grant college
• Space-grant college
• United States Court of Private Land Claims

Notes

External links

• Online collection and history of the Spanish Land Grants in Florida; made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida.
• Free online collection of 216,000 land grants issued by North Carolina from 1663 to 1960. Many are linked to actual document images.