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Spanish Land Grant Claim Survey Map, ca. 1818
(From: United States Board of Land Commissioners, Confirmed Spanish Land
Grant Claims, 1763-1821, Series S990)
Hand-colored plat maps such as this
one by Surveyor Robert McHardy are among the documents used to establish ownership
of land in Florida after it became a territory of the United States in 1821.
The U.S. Board of Land Commissioners was established in 1822 (3 U.S. Statute
709, May 8) to settle all outstanding Spanish
land grant claims in the territory that Spain ceded to the United States
the previous year. The Board set up offices in Pensacola and Saint Augustine
to determine the validity of all titles and private claims to these lands and
either supported or rejected the claims based on its review of the documents
submitted by claimants. This series is comprised of claims files containing
those supporting documents, including petitions or memorials to a governor for
land; surveys or plats; attestations; deeds of sale, gifts, wills, bequests,
and exchanges; and translations of original Spanish land documents.
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