There is some evidence that the Iredell settlers did not always play fair with the Earl’s agents. Some of the surveys show more land than called for in the grant. And Robert W. Ramsey, in his “Carolina Cradle,” interprets the slowness with which the first grants were made as an attempt of the settlers to live on the land as long as they could without paying quitrents. On March 25, 1752, almost four years after the first settlers showed up, Granville grants were made to 48 settlers, including Alexander Osborne; John and Robert Brevard; James Huggins and his son, John Huggins; George Davidson and George Davidson, Jr.; Benjamin Winsley; Rev. John Thompson; Robert, Andrew, and Thomas Allison; and William Morrison. Ramsey thinks that Osborne and the others had deliberately put off obtaining the grant to avoid paying quitrents so early.
https://ncgenweb.us/iredell/early-settlers/
