Florida Historical Quarterly Volume 24 Number 1 Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 24, Article 8 Issue 1 1945 Early Settlers in British West Florida Clinton N. Howard Part of the American Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Article is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Florida Historical Quarterly by an authorized editor of STARS. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Recommended Citation Howard, Clinton N. (1945) "Early Settlers in British West Florida," Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 24 : No. 1 , Article 8. Available at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol24/iss1/8 Howard: Early Settlers in British West Florida EARLY SETTLERS IN BRITISH WEST FLORIDA by CLINTON N. HOWARD The land grant records of the British colony of West Florida comprise a fairly complete census of the population of the colony in the early years. 1 Land was granted by the king-in-council and the governor and council. Grants by the former were presented to the latter for execution in a mandamus. The governor and council in West Florida usually set aside certain days in each month for consideration of petitions for grants of land, so the land grant records of the colony comprise a part of the minutes of the council. The proclamation of 1763 forbade settlement west of the watershed of the Appalachian moun- tains until the plan for the gradual extinction of the Indian title by purchase could be put into operation.