Tennessee land grant process c1787-1806

The Entry Book for the District South of the French Broad and Holston, covering Blount, Cocke, Jefferson, Knox and Sevier Counties, compiled by George and Juanita Fox, 2004, Source Reel 1, Knox CO. Register of Deeds, Sevier Co Library, Sevierville, TN., gives a background on land sales iduring the first decade or so after Tennessee Statehood].

Settlers were arriving as early as 1777 when the land was part of North Carolina, before 1806 they had limited opportunities to buy the land where they wanted to settle. In Nov. 1777, Washington County was formed and an entry takers office was opened to sell land at forty shillings per 100 acres. In 1781 the office closed. In Oct. 1783 an entry takers office was opened and it was closed May 1784 when North Carolina ceded it's western lands (Tennessee), back to the United States as part of a plan to relieve debts to the U.S. Government. In June 1785 John Sevier Negotiated the Treaty of Dumplin Creek where land South of the French Broad and Holston was bought from the Indians which extinguished their claims. In 1787 the State of Franklin opened a land office to sell land acquired because of the Sevier Treaty. The State of Franklin didn't last.

If a settler arrived anytime between 1785 and 1806 there was no land office so they were unable to buy land. The State of Tennessee granted pre-emption rights to the people living south of the French Broad and Holston and gave them first rights to buy the land they had settled on, the settlers petitioned for a land office, it opened 1806, however, the people had to draw numbers in order to process there claims, [and] many moved on. Most claims made in 1806 and 1807 were to people who occupied their claims. They could have been there as many as twenty years.

One of the claims made in this way was to David Cowan, book page #29, entry book page # 69, No. 183, 21 Aug. 1807, 384 acres 3 roods 20 perches on Boyd Creek situated in Sevier County claimed and held by right of occupancy. Surveyed and recorded by Brickey, John DS (Cowan, Hugh; Cowan, William.

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