WPA History of the Spanish Land Grants
Board Of Commissioners--East Florida
(view
image)
The three commissioners appointed for East Florid were Davis Floyd, William
F. Blair, and Alexander Hamilton. At the first meeting of the Board on
August 4, 1823, Floyd was elected chairman and Francisco Jose Fatio was
appointed secretary. John Lowe was appointed messenger; Joseph Lancaster
was sworn in as deputy to the secretary. (98)
The board adopted unanimously the following regulations:
“All persons claiming title to lands under any patent, grants,
concession, or order of survey, will make a brief statement, by Memorial,
setting forth the situation, boundaries, and if possible, the deraignment
of title, to the Lands claimed, and by whom granted, and by what authority,
and whatever the same be the whole or part of the original grant.”
“All cases where grants have been mad eon conditions it will be
necessary to show the nature of the conditions, whether they have been
performed and if not the reasons why they have not been complied with.”
“Where lands are claimed by actual settlers, without grants, concessions,
patents, on orders of survey, the same must be declared, occupancy stated
distinctly, together with the nature of the evidence, in support of the
claim; and whether the said possession ever was and in what manner acknowledged
or sanctioned by the Spanish government.”
“In all instances where claims are made in virtue of British Patents,
grants, etc., the claimants must describe in what manner they claim,
whether as original patentees or Grantees or by assignment, also whether
they are in actual possession, and if out of possession that they claim ‘bona
fide’ as American Citizens.”
“All original documents if in possession of the claimants must
be exhibited and in other cases certified copies, the Memorial, order
of Survey, Survey and confirmation, together with the translations of
the same.”
__________
98. “Record Book No. 8. Minutes of the Board of land Commissioners
for East Florida, Aug. 4, 1823, to Nov. 30, 1827,” pp. 1, 3, cited
hereafter as “Record Bk. 8, E. Fla.”
p. xl
(view
image)
“Claimants must show whether they were actual residents at the time of
the cession and where they now reside.” (99)
Rules adopted by the Board for its guidance included, among others:
“Resolved that claimants be not required to produce their title
papers translated into the English Language, but in all cases be permitted
to file the original documents—the Honorable Alexander Hamilton
dissenting.”
“Resolved, that hereafter whenever a claimant of Land shall present
his evidence of title to the Secretary of this Board desiring to bring
the same before the commissioners, it shall be the duty of said Secretary
without any fee therefore, to put the same in the form of a Memorial,
containing in substance what has already been required by the resolution
of this Board. And that the said Secretary be authorized too obtain from
the Printer in this city One thousand blank copies of said form & authorize
said printer to present his account therefore, before this board who
will direct the said account to be paid out of any monies which may come
into their hands for appropriations – or in case of none such will
certify said account to the Treasurer of the United States.”
“And be it further ordered that the Secretary be required to deliver
one of these printed forms to any person or persons applying for the
same.” (101)
On three occasions the following resolution was offered
before it was adopted on November 28:
“Resolved that claimants desiring to obtain the testimony of any
witness residing without the Territory of Florida shall file with the
Secretary their Interrogatories; and that the District Attorney under
the direction of the Board shall if required, annex Cross Interrogatories,
on behalf of the United States—and that in all cases where the
Witnesses are residents within the Territory, the claimant may file depositions
taken ‘Ex parte’ as the said witnesses are subject to the
jurisdiction of the Commissioners: leaving it optional with the Claimants
to procure by filing interrogatories, and that a commission
__________
99. Ibid., pp. 1-2
100. Ibid., p. 3
101. Ibid., p. 6
p. xli
(view
image)
with the interrogatories so annexed shall be directed to any person
authorized to administer oaths, sealed by the Secretary and delivered
to the party
so making application and it shall be the duty of said person to
take the answers of said Witness to all such interrogatories and none
other,
and to certify the same, and whether the said Commission was sealed
when delivered.” (102)
On December 9 it was ordered that “the Rules of evidence governing
Courts of Law, govern the Board for the future—viz., that the party
calling the Witness, first examine him, & then turn him over to the
District Attorney, and when he has finished the Board can ask him any
pertinent question which they conceive to have been omitted; but the
party examining the witness, cannot be interrupted without he is putting
an improper question—Mr. Hamilton dissented as to any restraint
on the Board in its examination.” (103) The Board adjourned sine
die on February 9, 1824. (104)
The difficulties with which the commissioners
had to contend were enumerated in their report at the end of the year.
The law required that all Spanish documents
be translated and recorded, but allowed only one secretary. No means of collecting
fees for translating papers for claimants having been provided by Congress
and the fees being too small to justify collection by the orderly processes
of law, no funds from that source were available for employing additional
clerks. To meet the situation the commissioners required the secretary
to hire an assistant,
Joseph B. Lancaster, and pay him from his own salary. Lancaster,
_____________
102. Ibid., p. 19
103. Ibid., p.160
104. Ibid., p. 189
p. xlii
(view
image)
resigned on December 8, and Lewis Huguon was appointed in his
place. After adjudication began the services of the secretary were necessary
to record the evidence of titles and the commissioners were compelled
to pay the salary of a second assistant, John M. Lawrence, to take
the minutes. (105) The number of claims was too great for the commissioners
to dispose of them in the time allowed, under the conditions stipulated
in the law, there being something like 600 by February 21, 1824. Property
owners in St. Augustine and Fernandina were disgruntled because they
were required to exhibit their titles, Section II of the treaty seeming
to imply that all private claims in those towns were accepted as valid,
only the public property being transferred to the United States. (106)
They accordingly held mass meetings and petitioned Congress to exempt
them from the necessity of exhibiting their titles, and the Board agreed
to submit the question to the Secretary of the Treasury. No reply had
been received at the end of the year and the claims had not been considered.
(107)
The Board had other troubles which prevented its functioning smoothly.
It moved its offices twice—from Government House to a house belonging
to Joseph Sanchez, then back to Government House. (108) It was unable
to obtain certain
documents from the Public Archives and was compelled to issue a subpoena
duces tecum to William Reynolds. (109)
_______
105. Ibid., pp. 158-159
106. DG, III, 759-760
107. Ibid.
108. Ibid., pp. 770, 777, 788.
109. “Record Bk. 8, E. Fla.” P. 8
p. xliii
(view
image)
The same procedure was necessary even after the Secretary of
State instructed him to deliver the documents. (110) And finally there
was such a divergence
of opinion between Hamilton and the other commissioners as to procedure
(111) that Hamilton refused to participate in the sessions and bombarded
President Monroe, Secretary of Treasury Crawford, Secretary of State
Adams, and the chairman of the house committee on public lands with
serious charges against his colleagues and those in charge of the Public
Archives. (112) After Hamilton ceased to participate (113) the two
commissioners adopted the rule that in cases of disagreement between
them the claims with all the facts should be reported to Congress for
disposition. (114)
As former United States district attorney for East
Florida, Hamilton was on the ground when he was appointed to the Board,
and on June 7,
before the other
commissioners arrived, he appointed a secretary, Peter Lynch, to receive land
clams. When the organized on August 4, it dispensed with Hamilton’s appointee,
chose Fatio secretary, and ordered all papers that had been filed returned
to claimants “to be presented in proper order.” (115)
Whether or not friction was first caused by Hamilton’s officiousness
in beginning the work before the Board had organized and inserted
________
110. DG, III, p. 788
111. “Record Bk. 8, E. Fla.,” pp. 159, 160, 162, 165, 170, 173,
176.
112. DG, III, 725 et seq., 762, et seq., 892 et seq.
113. He continued to attend the meetings of the board.
114. “Record Bk. 8, E. Fla.,” p. 185
115. Ibid., pp. 2, 5
p. xliv
(view image)
in the newspapers the necessary instructions to claimants, the minutes
show that there was seldom agreement between Hamilton and his colleagues.
He complained of “the important and procrastinated situation
of the business of the commission,” or the failure of the Board,
as he saw it, to adopt certain principles to govern their decisions,
and of the “illegal and improper manner in which the Minutes
were kept on loose sheets.” On December 9 the Board ordered
the secretary to record the minutes in a “well-bound book,” as
the law required. (116)
The Act creating the Board for East Florida
had not defined “actual settlers.” The
majority of the Board defined the term as meaning persons actually settled
within the province at the time of the exchange of flags but not necessarily
on the land claimed. Hamilton did not agree with the definition (117) and
neither did Congress, for the following year, in an Act to extend
the time for the
settlement of private land claims in Florida, it defined actual settlers
as those who were in the cultivation or occupation of the land at
or before the
date of cession. (118)
The more serious charges made by Hamilton were in regard
to 1. the careless and haphazard manner in which he said the public
archives were kept, which
had resulted in one or more documents being altered, one stolen and another
substituted, and the dependence of the Board on such an office for transcripts
or certified copies instead of insisting upon the original documents; and
2. fraud in connection with the
_______
116. Ibid., p. 159
117. Ibid., p. 170
118. U.S. Stat. at Large, IV, 7.
p. xlv
(view
image)
favorable action of the Board on McIntosh, Segui, and Arredondo
claims. (119) Hamilton was skeptical of the testimony of George J.F.
Clarke,
surveyor-general
under the Spanish government, and of his “pretended deputy, Burgevin,” the
latter of whom he characterized as “contemptible.” He commented
on Clarke’s “extravagant pretensions and inconsistent representations,
with a memory on some subjects singularly tenacious, and on others peculiarly
forgetful.” (120) Hamilton resigned on March 31, 1824, but a month later
withdrew his resignation until the end of the session of Congress that his
communication might in the meantime “have official importance.” (121)
The committee on public lands did not sustain Hamilton, but it recommended
that the President give the Board instructions as to its powers and duties
and adopt such measures as were necessary for the safe-keeping of the archives.
(122)
At the end of the year the Board reported to Congress the principles
________
119. Hamilton stated to the Secretary of the Treasury that he would go from
St. Augustine to Charleston and there hold himself in readiness should his
presence be required in Washington in connection with his charges. An aftermath
of Hamilton’s sojourn in Florida was three court cases. Two of the cases,
filed Feb. 9, 1824, were for libel in the sums of $10,000 and $20,000 in connection
with his alleged candidacy for territorial delegate to Congress and a petition
to the president signed by a number of persons for his removal as a member
of the Board of Land Commissioners. —Alexander Hamilton v. Eusebio
Gomez and Alexander Hamilton v. Eusebio Gomez and Joseph H. Hernandez, File H 3,
Superior Court, St. Johns County, Fla. In the third case Hamilton brought suit
for damages in the sum of $1,600 against the master and commander of the sloop “Rapid” for
loss of his trunk and law books when the sloop burned at Charleston wharf on
July 6, 1824. – Alexander Hamilton v. Alexander G. Swasey, File H 10,
Superior Court, St. Johns County, Fla.
120. SG, III, 764 et seq., 892 et seq.
121. Ibid., 766, 866. Hamilton’s charges and law suits have been included
as a possible assistance in interpreting certain claims.
122. Ibid., p. 863.
p. xlvi
(view
image)
upon which it had based its decisions: 1. the aw of the Indies;
2. royal orders; 3. decrees and regulations made and published by the
local
governors; and 4. customs and usages which prevailed in the various
offices of the territorial [Spanish] government. (123) Another principle
upon which they acted was acceptance of royal titles granted without
conditions and of those granted after January 24, 1818, provided the
latter’s conditions were fulfilled before that date. (124)
Early
the following year Congress increased the work of the commissioners
by adding another class of claimants. There was in the Territory of
Florida a
large number of settlers who had no titles to show for the lands they occupied—renters,
squatters, or purchases of lands with doubtful titles. The majority of these
were probably citizens of the United States. To retain and do justice to these
settlers Congress by the “Donation Act” of May 26, 1824, authorized
the commissioners “to receive and examine all claims founded on habitation
and cultivation of any tract of land, town or city lot or outlet by any person
being head of a family and 21 yeas of age,” who on February 22, 1819,
the date of the signing of the treaty, “actually inhabited and cultivated
such tract of land, or actually cultivated and improved such lot, or who, on
that day, cultivated any tract of land in the vicinity of any town or city,
having a permanent residence in such town or city.” To such persons they
were to grant certificates of confirmation not to exceed 640 acres.
________
123. Ibid., p. 725
124. Ibid., pp. 1-10, 725, V, 394.
p. xlvii
(view
image)
The Act provided also that the commissioners were to receive
claims to land founded on habitation and cultivation commenced between
February
22, 1819,
and July 17, 1821, the date of the abstract of all such claims to the Secretary
of the Treasury. Claims merely reported upon were to be laid before Congress “with
the evidence of the time, nature and extent of such inhabitation and cultivation…and
extent of the claim,” but no claim was to be received, confirmed,
or reported in favor of any person who claimed any tract by virtue of any
written evidence of Title from either the British or Spanish governments.
(125)
Davis Floyd and William W. Blaire, commissioners for East Florida, met
on March 29, 1824, pursuant to the law of the February 19 which extended
the
time limits
for the settlement of private land claims in East Florida to January 1, 1825.
(126) Congress having failed to make an appropriation for employing assistant
clerks, the services of the minuting secretary and the messenger were discontinued.
(127) Through April to August the Board had often to adjourn for lack of
a quorum, due to Blair’s illness. (128) On August 24 George Murray, who
had been appointed “vice for William W. Blair”, was present for
the first time; (129) and on September 29 William Henry Allen, who had been
appointed on August 12 as the third member of the Board, was in attendance.
(130)
_________
125. U.S. State. At Large, IV, 47.
126. Ibid., pp.6-7.
127. “Record Bk. 8, E. Fla.,” p. 191.
128. Ibid., p. 223.
129. Ibid., p. 226.
130. Ibid., p. 258.
p. xlviii
(view
image)
On December 28 the Board adjourned sine die. (131) In its report,
dated January 1, 1825, the Board stated that it had found it impossible
to complete the
work within the time specified by law. The Commissioners explained that
property had often been conveyed one, two, three, or even four times
and petitioners
had frequently received grants at certain places, changed their minds and
had surveys made elsewhere, which made the examination of claims exceedingly
tedious. They had employed an additional clerk [probably Thomas Murphy]
for the past three months who so far had revived no pay, and he had been
able
within that time to record only 34 claims, since they averaged 21 pages
each. There were 1,104 claims filed during the year, of which 80 were
still under
advisement. (132)
On March 3, 1825, an Act of Congress extended the time of the commissioners
for East Florida to the first Monday in January, 1826, and made appropriations
for two additional clerks.
The Board in West Florida having in large part
completed its work, the Act directed the commissioners there to deliver
all records and evidence relative
to land claims to the Register and Receiver of the Land Office in West
Florida, who should examine and decide the remaining claims subject to
the rules which
had governed the commissioners. (133)
On March 28 the Board for East Florida met with Davis Floyd, George Murray,
and William H. Allen, commissioners, and Francisco Jose Fatio, secretary,
present. Thomas Murphy and Lewis Huguon were appointed
_____________
131. Ibid., p. 287
132. DG, IV, 157-158
133. U.S. Stat. at Large, IV, 125-126.
p. xlix
(view
image)
assistant clerks. (134) Sessions were held in Jacksonville on
May 16 and several times thereafter for the convenience of claimants.
(135)
It adjourned sine die on December 30, 1825. (136) Its reports of January
1 and 31, 1826, showed more than 500 claims yet undetermined. (137)
The Board was criticized in the press, being charged with allowing
counsel to appear for claimants and for itself with the object of killing
time and prolonging its life. Floyd made a spirited defense to the
Secretary of the Treasury and related the difficulties under which
the commissioners had labored. He charged that doubtful claims had
been held back by their owners and criticisms against the Board made
in the hope that “the business might fall into more favorable
hands.” (138)
There is no doubt that the commissioners for East
Florida had a far greater task than did those for West Florida. The
number of claims
in East Florida
was greater, the claims were more complicated and it may have been that the
commissioners were less systematic in handling them. It would seem also that
friction among themselves retarded the work. The remaining claims were disposed
of by the Register and Receiver of the Land Office for East Florida. (139)
Charles Downing and William H. Allen.
________
134. “Record Bk. 8, E. Fla.,” p. 228.
135. Ibid., p. 303-305
136. Ibid., p. 355.
137. DG, IV, 275-277, 400-501.
138. Ibid., p. 507; Floyd’s charges in 1826 seem to have been confirmed
by R.K. Call’s report nearly ten years later.—Infra, pp. lii-liii.
139. “Record Bk. 8, E. Fla.,” pp. 357 et seq.
|
