How Colonists Acquired Title To Land In Virginia

How Colonists Acquired Title to Land in Virginia

land patents were handwritten documents in the colonial era land patents were handwritten documents in the colonial era Source: Library of Virginia, patent for Wren, James. grantee (April 5, 1773)

The English who settled in Virginia starting in 1607 asserted that they owned the land. During the colonial period, individual colonists acquired real property primarily through grants from the Virginia Company and then aby headrights, treasury rights, and military warrants.

With rare exceptions any pre-existing ownership rights of the Native Americans, the current occupants, were dismissed. At various times the English stated simply that they owned the land through Right of Discovery and Right of Conquest. Treaties were negotiated with different tribes in the 1600's and 1700's to extinguish Native American claims, but land was seized rather than purchased from the original inhabitants. The chain of title for parcels in Virginia starts with colonial records created by the English.

Charters issued by James I did acknowledge the land claims of the Spanish in the New World, based on prior settlement. The first charter issued to the Virginia Company in 1606 authorized the investors "

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