Land Grant to Abraham Hite

Name/Title

Land Grant to Abraham Hite

Entry/Object ID

04.22

Description

Iron gall ink on vellum. Land grant to Abraham Hite of 570 acres in Fayette County. Signed by Governor Henry on February 2, 1786. The document is a partly printed form with spaces for specific information to be filled in by hand. The back of where an official seal was attached is visible in the lower right-hand corner. Patrick Henry's signature is found in the lower right-hand corner.

Collection

Patrick & Dorothea Henry Collection

Transcription

Transcription

Patrick Henry Esquire, Governor of the Commonwealth of VIRGINIA. TO ALL TO WHOM these Presents shall come, Greeting: KNOW YE, that by Virtue and in Consideration of part of Land Office Treasury Warrant. Numbers Eleven hundred and Issued the ninth day of June one Thousand Seven hundred and Eighty there is granted by the said Commonwealth unto Abraham Hite a certain Tract or Parcel of Land, containing Five hundred Seventy acres by survey bearing date the Seventeenth day of June, one Thousand Seven hundred and Eighty four lying and being in the County of Fayette and bounded asfolloweth To wit, Beginning at two Cedars white oak and Mulberry on the Clift of Kentucky River and comes to his Survey of Three hundred and Thirty acres and running from thence North only five degrees East Two hundred and Thirty Poles to two black oaks and ash thence North one hundred Poles to a black ash hickory and Locust thence North Seven degrees West one hundred and forty eight Poles to four Sugar trees white oak and Mulberry. Thence North forty five degrees West one hundred and twenty Poles to a poplar white oak and hickory thence South thirty eight degrees West. three hundred and Eighty Poles to a white oak corner to his 330 acre Survey thence with the line there of S31° E260 poles to the Beginning — with its Apportenances; TO HAVE TO HOLD the said Tract of Parcel of Land with its Apportenances, to the said Abraham Hite – and his Heirs forever. IN WITNESS whereof, the said — Patrick Henry Esq. Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, hath hereunto set his Hand, and caused the lesser Seal of the said Commonwealth to be affixed at Richmond, on the –Second Day of February – in the Year of our Lord, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-Six and of the Commonwealth the Tenths [Signed in the hand of Patrick Henry] P. Henry [Reverse] Abraham Hite is Entitled to the Within mentioned Tract of Land. Abraham Hite 570 Acres Fayette County Clover Bottom Exd. Recorded & Exd.

Language

English

Dimensions

Width

12-3/4 in

Length

14-1/2 in

Provenance

Notes

This land grant to Abraham Hite was signed by Patrick Henry during his fifth and last term as Governor of Virginia. Land grants for vacant western property in Virginia were distributed by a Land Office created in 1779. This process had many steps which are evidenced in this grant to Abraham Hite. The grant was based on a warrant issued soon after the creation of the Land Office in 1779. Frontiersman Abraham Hite had purchased Treasury Warrant #1100 on June 9, 1780. He used it to claim 570 acres in Fayette County, near Lexington, Kentucky, surveyed on June 20, 1784, "near the Cliffs of the Kentucky River." After no rival claimants appeared within the required six month waiting period, Governor Henry signed the land over to Abraham Hite on February 2, 1786. This land grant was donated to the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation by Betty Casey in June 2004. She purchased the land grant from the Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery of New York, NY and presented it to the Foundation in June 2004.