Here is one of the stranger examples of a land certificate I've seen to date. Persons arriving in Texas between October 1, 1837 and January 1, 1840 were entitled to headright grants in the quantities of 640 acres for heads of families (regardless of gender) or 320 acres for single men.
The recipient of the above certificate was a single man who supposedly had already received a certificate for 320 acres on June 24, 1839 and then sought this "augmentation" of his headright by claiming his status had afterwards become that of the head of a family since he had brought a family with him to Texas. In his case, that family he brought were his slaves. The certificate was held to be invalid by the GLO when it was returned for the issuance of a patent to the land covered by the field notes of a survey made to locate it.
The overwritten note is the work of the Texas Commissioner of the General Land Office, Thomas William "Peg Leg" Ward. Mr. Ward's handwriting is quite difficult to read, but his note is worth the effort.
Note that Mr. Ward had lost his right arm a few years before the above note was written by him, most likely left-handed.
" ..Ward acquired rights to almost 8,000 acres of Texas land, including 4,428 acres in recognition of the disability he sustained in battle."
That sure seems like an awful lot of land to acquire for just one battle and injury.
I've seen warrants for one Labor for simply guarding the baggage and provisions during an engagement. Did Ward accumulate a lot of scrip for his recruitment efforts ?
"This has been an outrage _______ ________ seise and the constitution."
- July 23, 184(?)
Here's the overwritten note with the background clutter of the text of the certificate removed:
"This has been a great outrage _________ ______ seise, and the constitution.
"This has been a great outrage against(?) common seise, and the constitution.
Thanks for the effort, Kent. This is almost better than Ray Miller's Texas.
> "This has been a great outrage against(?) common seise, and the constitution.
I make it "This has been a great outrage against common sense and the Constitution"
In other words, Commissioner Ward thought that claiming one's slaves were his own family defied the ordinary meaning of family, noting that the Texas Constitution of 1836 provided as follows for the status of certain people who were slaves before they entered Texas :
>SEC. 9. All persons of color who were slaves for life previous to their emigration to Texas, and who are now held in bondage, shall remain in the like state of servitude, provided the said slave shall be the bona fide property of the person so holding said slave as aforesaid. Congress shall pass no laws to prohibit emigrants from the United States of America from bringing their slaves into the Republic with them, and holding them by the same tenure by which such slaves were held in the United States; nor shall Congress have power to emancipate slaves; nor shall any slave-holder be allowed to emancipate his or her slave or slaves, without the consent of Congress, unless he or she shall send his or her slave or slaves without the limits of the Republic. No free person of African descent, either in whole or in part, shall be permitted to reside permanently in the Republic, without the consent of Congress, and the importation or admission of Africans or negroes into this Republic, excepting from the United States of America, is forever prohibited, and declared to be piracy.
> " ..Ward acquired rights to almost 8,000 acres of Texas land, including 4,428 acres in recognition of the disability he sustained in battle."
Actually, that total acreage looks like a mistake. Thomas Wm. Ward received a First-Class Headright grant for 1 League (4428 acres) for his injury. Here's the certificate from that grant:
He received 640 acres for having fought at the Battle of Bexar (where he lost his leg):
And he was later granted an additional 320 acres for his service at Bexar:
It looks to me as if he bought the rest of the land he acquired from the Republic of Texas, including City lots in Galveston and Austin, another league of land, and various other tracts.
Cool stuff, thanks for sharing
Ralph
