Land grant

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With the term grant land or simplified Grant are country awards in the New England called colonies of North America. These land grants include the granting of land as a gift or a cheap purchase offer or the granting of usage privileges. It could also be awarded as a reward for services or in return for military service. This goes back to the Aerarium militare , where in the Roman Empire veterans were given land as a pension by the state.

First land awards

The first land grants came in the 16th century. On June 11, 1578, Queen Anne gave Humphrey Gilbert a six-year privilege to explore and take possession of land in Newfoundland that was not yet in European hands. He was also allowed to evict others (including indigenous peoples) from this land, establish a colony and give the land to settlers, in the name of the Crown and under laws similar to English law.

The Virginia Company received on April 10, 1606 from King James I the right to develop areas on the American continent. To this end, two companies were founded, the Virginia Company of London and the Virginia Company of Plymouth , which divided the area among themselves and were supervised by the Council of Virginia , which is based in England .

The London and Bristol Company was granted the right to manage the Avalon Peninsula on May 2, 1610 by King James I.

The Society of Merchant Venturers also participated in the development of the New England colonies.

As a result of the British colonization of America, a number of colonies developed that gave land to settlers.

One of the first of these grants was the August 10, 1622 patent that gave rise to the Province of Maine . The Plymouth Council for New England, a public company that had the right by royal decree to assign settlements along the coast of North America, was given to Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason .

New Hampshire Grants

As the first governor of New Hampshire , Benning Wentworth awarded land between 1749 and 1764 as part of the New Hampshire Grants profitably mostly to land speculators, who sold the lands to settlers. The grants usually covered an area that was 6 by 6 miles (9.6 km, about 92.2 km²) in size. Called out for £ 20, the cost was shared by the new owners. The land was divided into approximately 65 parts, one part reserved for the Church of England Mission Organization, one for the Church of England, one for the first minister of the new ward, one for the school of the future ward, and two for Benning Wentworth were. Some of the grants expired because the fee was not paid. These were newly proclaimed and assigned. The settlers were obliged to pay one shilling annually to the king or his representative for each piece of land.

In some cases, the land grants overlapped with those of the province of New York . As a result, this led to considerable border disputes, which meant that the area of ​​the New Hampshire Grants did not belong to the founding states of the United States as an independent state of Vermont, as originally planned , but instead the Vermont Republic was founded in 1777 , which was then after the dispute had been settled and the payment of 30,000 Spanish dollars to New York in 1791, the 14th state to join the United States.

Vermont Carter

Judge John Jay , who pronounced this judgment, received a third of the Town Jay named after him from the State of Vermont in 1792 as a gift, another third was given to his colleague John Crozine and the last third went to the governor of Vermont, Thomas Chittenden , to whom the State of Vermont still owed 350 pounds in wages.

The young state of Vermont retained the practice of land allocation in order to generate income through this instrument and thus finance its budget. In some cases, some buyers made these grants less for the sake of the country and more to support the state. These grants are known as the Vermont Carter .

Land-grant University

The land grants procedure was later used to secure the establishment or funding of state universities in the United States . This was based on two laws passed in 1862 and 1890, the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Acts . Named after the initiator Justin Smith Morrill . Land ownership was transferred to the states by the federal government , and the proceeds from the sale or use could cover the costs of establishing and maintaining the universities. A total of 69 universities were founded and designated as land-grant universities . In accordance with the provisions of the law, the focus of the universities was on agriculture , engineering and military science .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography - GILBERT, SIR HUMPHREY - Volume I (1000-1700) - Dictionary of Canadian Biography . ( biographi.ca ).
  2. ^ Charles O. Paullin, John K. Wright: Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States . Carnegie Institution of Washington and American Geographical Society , New York, New York and Washington, DC: 1932, pp. 42 .
  3. ^ Married Women and Property Law in Victorian Ontario . University of Toronto Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-8020-7839-1 .
  4. ↑ The Federal and State constitutions, colonial charters, and other organic laws of the state [s], territories, and colonies now or heretofore forming the United States of America / compiled and edited under the Act of Congress of June 30, 1906. In : yale.edu. avalon.law.yale.edu, 1998, accessed March 10, 2018 .
  5. ^ New Hampshire Grants | historical territory, United States . In: Encyclopedia Britannica . ( britannica.com ).
  6. ^ NH Gov. Benning Wentworth Grabs the King's Masts, Along With Vermont - New England Historical Society . In: New England Historical Society . 2014 ( newenglandhistoricalsociety.com ).
  7. ^ History of Vermont, Natural, Civil, and Statistical . For the author, by C. Goodrich, 1842, p. 87 ( books.google.de ).
  8. ^ Morrill Act: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress). In: loc.gov. Retrieved February 3, 2018 .

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