Missouri State Archives Finding Aid 951.1 U.S. RECORDER OF LAND TITLES FIRST BOARD OF LAND COMMISSIONERS PAPERS OF ORIGINAL CLAIMANTS, 1777-1851 Abstract: Papers of original claimants (1777-1851) submitted before the First Board of Land Commissioners to determine the validity of French and Spanish land grants made before the Louisiana Purchase. Extent: 11 cubic ft. (15 legal-size hollinger boxes and 9 flat boxes) Physical Description: Paper Location: MSA Rare Documents ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION Access Restrictions: No special restrictions. However, some records may be too fragile to be produced or may be undergoing conservation treatment. Publication Restrictions: Copyright is in the public domain. Items reproduced for publication should carry the credit line: Courtesy of the Missouri State Archives. Preferred Citation: [Name]; Papers of Original Claimants, 1777-1851; First Board of Land Commissioners; U.S. Recorder of Land Titles, Record Group 951; Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City. Acquisition Information: Agency transfer. Various accessions. Processing Information: Processing completed by Mary Kay Coker on June 14, 2010. Added plat of survey for widow of Charles Guilbaud found in the stacks on June 7, 2017. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES On March 2, 1805, Thomas Jefferson signed into law an “Act for ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to land within the Territory of Orleans and the district of Louisiana.” At this PAPERS OF ORIGINAL CLAIMANTS (1st BOARD), 1777-1851 time, Missouri belonged to the Louisiana Territory, purchased of the French in 1803. The act stated that anyone “who on the first day of October, in the year one thousand eight hundred, were resident with the territories ceded by the French Republic” and had obtained “any duly registered warrant, or order of survey for lands lying within said territories…shall be confirmed in their claims…” The same act allowed for two presidential appointees as land commissioners who, along with the recorder of land titles, “be commissioners for the purpose of ascertaining within their respective districts, the rights of persons claiming under any French or Spanish grant…” The members of the (First) Board of Land Commissioners were as follows: (1) James L. Donaldson, Recorder of Land Titles, replaced by Frederick Bates (2) John B. C. Lucas (3) Clement B. Penrose Clerks to the board included Charles Gratiot and William Christy. The board met from 1805 until 1812. However, because of continued outcry by those rejected, a second board was formed in 1832. ADDITIONAL DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION Bibliography American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States ... Selected and Edited, under the Authority of Congress, by Walter Lowrie and Matthew St. Clair Clarke. Reprint. Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1994. Vol. 2: 1809-1815, Public Lands. Vol. 3: 1815-1824, Public Lands. (Available in MSA Reference Room. Indexed.) Related Material Closely related are the Papers of Original Claimants, 1785-1857, of the Second Board of Land Commissioners. Minutes (and printed indexes) of both boards are also available. Many of the original records were copied into record books (Volumes A-G, with E missing). The Registre d’Arpentage includes copies of plats of some early claims. Related records may also be found at the Land Records Repository of the Department of Natural Resources in Rolla. Missouri State Archives Page 2 of 169 Finding Aid 951.1 PAPERS OF ORIGINAL CLAIMANTS (1st BOARD), 1777-1851 PAPERS OF ORIGINAL CLAIMANTS, 1777-1851 Arrangement: Alphabetical by surname of primary claimant Scope and Content The demarcation between the papers in this series and those of the 2nd Board is not always clear, as those rejected by the 1st Board are often filed in the 2nd. Basically, if it does not clearly belong in the 2nd Board, it is found here, including some claims that might have been the subject of later litigation, which accounts for their late date. A small number of depositions taken before the 2nd Board but not recorded in their minutes or reports appear to be an extension of already confirmed grants (normally requesting 640 acres as their settlement right) and may have been denied en masse. Occasionally, papers generated by the board—such as translations and certificates of confirmation—are found here, even though they are not strictly papers submitted by the claimants. Many records are in French or Spanish. The measurement used for most land records is in French arpents. Most of the reports use the anglicized version of given names, although there are some exceptions. The choice may have more to do with the clerk or government in power than with the nationality of the claimant. For instance, James MacKay, who was Scottish, is referred to as both Santiago (Spanish) and Jacques (French). The American State Papers (ASP) Vol. 2 (pp. 463 – 729) and Vol. 3 (pp. 313-370) give brief details on those persons granted certificates and those rejected. For convenience, the finding aid lists the appropriate pages where found. If the page number is in (parentheses) then it could not be determined if the citation directly relates to the land or documents in question. T=translation available in folder (#) is an identifying number placed on the document (probably by the WPA) (OVERSIZE) is in flat box housing The records in this series include wrappers, plats of survey, deeds, receipts, concessions, depositions, and affidavits. Wrappers (small pieces of paper used to wrap around the original bundle) generally give the name of the original claimant, arpents or acres claimed, decision number, and dated filed with the board. Occasionally a notation will also give its disposition, such as “laid over for decision” or “rejected.” Some note that there are “no papers.” Plats of surveys are in English, Spanish, and French. Technically, they are plats (maps) and transcripts of surveys, as they not only show graphically where the land is (plat) but also give the description (transcript) in metes and bounds (e.g., 10 poles from a white oak tree). In general, if a plat of survey is marked “received of record” by Antoine Soulard, it is not found in the Registre d’Arpentage, which has a notation in it by Soulard stating that, due to the increased number of surveys submitted, those he was unable to record before turning over his records to the new surveyor general would be noted as “received of record.” Many of these surveys are dated in Missouri State Archives Page 3 of 169 Finding Aid 951.1 PAPERS OF ORIGINAL CLAIMANTS (1st BOARD), 1777-1851 February of 1806. If, on the other hand, it is certified as recorded by Soulard, the plat of survey should have a marking on the plat, usually beginning “A sentado libro” and giving the book number (A, B, C, D, etc), page number, and survey number in the Registre d’Arpentage. A list of surveys greater than 300 arpents found in the Registre d’Arpentage can be found in ASP 8:848– 867. Copies of the plats of survey are also usually found in the Record Books (RG 951) A-G (missing E). Deeds convey property from one party to another. For a small number, there are documents, particularly deeds of conveyance in French that are not found in ASP in full (merely called deeds of conveyance or transfers). Presumably these deeds are also recorded in county offices and are sometimes themselves copies made from county records. For early New Madrid deeds, these copies may be all that now exist. Receipts for original papers are found in several folders, meaning the original claimant or their legal representative had retrieved the papers from the board. In only a few occasions were these papers returned. If an attorney or agent obtained the original papers, it is possible that the papers may still exist in court or Congressional records, as that was the next step in the process if one had still been rejected at the close of the board. Concessions are actually two documents, the petition of the claimant to the Spanish or French government, and the concession by the government official, most often Lt. Gov. Zenon Trudeau or Carlos Dehault Delassus. The date of the document given here is the concession date and not the petition date. Sometimes the petition and concession are in different languages (e.g., petition in French and concession in Spanish) but all are in one of the two languages unless it is a translated copy. Some concessions also include a recommendation from a lower level government official. In comparison to surveys and depositions, the number of original concessions is few, perhaps because the claimants and their attorneys were anxious to have these returned. Most of the concessions from the 2nd Board are translated in ASP. Depositions are almost always originals, with the signatures (or marks) of those deposing certified by one or more of the Board. In ASP, both testimony and depositions are given and the words are used interchangeably. For the purposes of this finding aid, depositions are distinguished solely by the signature or mark of the deposer, which is always given in CAPITAL letters in the ASP. Testimony, on the other hand, is found in the minute books (Vols. 6 and 7) of the Board and should be referred to in the ASP by volume and page number. Affidavits, while similar to depositions, appear to have been given in front of some other official, often a notary or county clerk, rather than before the Board. They are relatively few in number. Missouri State Archives Page 4 of 169 Finding Aid 951.1 PAPERS OF ORIGINAL