Yeoman's in the Fork Blog

Land grants in America appear to be widely used starting in or near the 1600's. Several countries including Spain, Britain, Portugal and the Netherlands were issuing land in America to citizens for use as missions and farms. This system of giving land away in exchange for the promise of working the land was adopted by the Colonial Government as well. Britain used land grants as motivation for their soldiers during the Revolutionary war just as the Continental Army did. The vast majority of land grants in America were actually a direct result of the Revolutionary war. Soldiers who served the Continental Army were gifted land via a land grant in post-war America. The size of the land issued to the soldier generally depended upon the rank reached by that patriotic warrior.

Private 640 Acres

Non-Commissioned Officer 1000 Acres

Subaltern 2560 Acres

Captain 3840 Acres

Major 4800 Acres

Lieutenant Colonel 5760 Acres

Colonel 7200 Acres

Brigadier 12000 Acres

Surgeon 4800 Acres

Surgeon's Mate 2500 Acres

Land grants have been issued in one form or fashion by most Presidents starting with George Washington. To the collector of Presidential Autographs and Historical Documents the land grant itself (the actual physical document) has represented an economical way to add a signed Presidential document to their collection. Many types of documents signed by the early Presidents are much more sought after due to their scarcity. Almost all Presidents before Andrew Jackson actually signed each and every single land grant so validity and authenticity is almost beyond question. Starting about 1832, Jackson started the downward spiral for this type of document as it pertains to the autograph collector though. Jackson, for a few reasons we have come across, stopped signing them all himself. Instead, he had his secretaries sign them for him. This was the beginning of the end and soon the land grant would almost always be found signed by secretaries and not the President himself.