John George Bender PAINTER

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  General Notes:

From Mary B. Kegley., " Early Adventurers on the Wester Waters", Volume III, Part 1, pages 1 & 2.

THE LAND SEEKERS
There is no doubt that available land was one of the major enticements for people to move to the Southwest part of Virginia beginning about 1745. The land companies and their records confirm the extent of the interest. The French and Indian War kept the settlements from developing during the 1750s and 1760s, but when the treaties were signed and the land was once more in the hands of the Virginia government and the land companies, there was a new surge of migration. The Loyal Company continued to deal with its extensive claims and its many land seekers. The Commissioners of Montgomery and Washington Counties came to veri1 titles in the 1780s (See, Early Adventurers, Volumes 1 and 2).

Following the American Revolutionary War, there was another major development on the Western Waters. Soldiers and their families moved to new locations; solid citizens felt the call of the Kentucky bluegrass country and from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and other northern locations, they migrated southward. As each new phase of development took place, the one common denominator was the quest for land. Often it was just a few weeks or months after arrival that the adventurer claimed his piece of Southwest Virginia. This quest for land (cheaper, better, or just some) is evident in the entry books, survey records, deed books, and lawsuits.

In the early days of settlement, entries and surveys were made in compliance with the rules of the land companies, such as Patton's Woods River or Great Grant, and Dr. Walker's Loyal Land Company. Many settlers of Montgomery County (now Wythe, Pulaski, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth and Tazewell) counties claimed their land in the l780s, but not usually under any land company. By the time of the 1780s and certainly by 1790 when Wythe County was formed, most of the best farm land had been claimed and only pieces of vacant land remained. These latter tracts were generally chosen based on treasury warrants from the Land Office in Richmond. There was, however, an exception. The Commissioners Of Montgomery and Washington Counties in the 1780s often authorized a survey for land which had been held under the land companies many years before.

Treasury warrants could be for a large number of acres, and several entries could be made on the same warrant until the authorized number of acres had been claimed. The entry book was kept in the clerk's office and notified the surveyor and his assistants that the land could now be surveyed.

The surveyor went to the premises and, generally speaking, ran the lines and wrote the description of the property and drew a map or plat in the surveyor's or plat book, designating the way the land was claimed, who claimed it, the number of acres, and the date of completion. The surveyor noted the location of the property, but because there were no towns or villages, except the county seats, the tracts of land were located by creeks, rivers, and their branches. Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Wytheville, Newbern and others did not exist prior to 1 790s. In order to describe the land, line trees, such as red oak, white oak, black oak, sycamore, among others, were marked so each person would know the tract boundaries. Often the surveyor mentioned adjoining owners. Occasionally, a settler would want all of his holdings put in one survey called an inclusive survey, in which case all of his claims were listed. Approval for this typeof survey had to come from the court.

It should be emphasized that entries and surveys do not necessarily indicate ownership of land. It was a way to show the intent of the settler to claim a certain place for himself, but until he actually had the patent or grant, he did not have ownership as we know it today, and he had no legal right to make a deed. He may have had a right to the land in question, and his claim was worth something, but the ultimate ownership was a patent or grant from the State Land Office. He would not have been considered a “squatter” either, because there was a way to claim land in an orderly manner--stake a claim, enter the land, get a survey, pay fees, and wait for the patent or grant to be issued.

After making an entry, the next step to finalize ownership was to send the description of the survey and the plat to the Land Office with the required fees. If no one else claimed the land through a caveat (usually one to two years depending on the time period), the grant signed by the Governor of Virginia or his agent, was issued to the settler. Prior to the American Revolution, the grants were generally referred to as patents, but often the scribe who wrote the deeds did not know the difference, so in the records of Southwest Virginia the terms are often interchangeable. In both cases, the documents came from the government, and these records can be found at the Virginia State Library, Archives, either in abstract or full form.

After receipt of the grant or patent, a deed could be made in order to sell the property. Prior to receiving the title from the government, the only way to transfer the land was by assignment, when the seller then issued or transferred the title bond for the land. These were not recorded. An entry and a survey, either one or both, could be assigned Because no deed was made until the purchase money was paid m full, and because people often died or moved away before this took place, many cases were brought before the courts to obtain the deed to the property.

For further information on entries and how the land was taken up, see Kegley and Kegley, Early Adventurers, Vol. 1, where abstracts of the entries in Montgomery County Entry Book A, and Kegley,EarlyAdvenrurers,Vol . 2, where the Commissioner's records are published Because Montgomery County was the mother county of several counties, the work of abstracting the land entry books continues in this volume Some entries are for what is now West Virginia, some for the counties of Floyd, present Montgomery, part of Giles, Bland, Wythe, Carroll, Grayson, and part of Smyth. When Wythe County was formed it covered parts of Bland, Tazewell, Smyth, Pulaski, and most of Carroll and Grayson as well as all of present Wythe County. The only way to tell from the entry where the land was located is by knowing the names of the creeks. Most are still on the topographic maps today, but of course a few have changed names.

John married Elizabeth. (Elizabeth was born in Virginia, USA.)