Land patent
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A land patent is a form of letters patent assigning official ownership of a particular tract of land that has gone through various legally-prescribed processes like surveying and documentation, followed by the letter's signing, sealing, and publishing in public records, made by a sovereign entity.
It is the highest evidence of
The land patent is not to be confused with a land grant. Patented lands may be lands that had been granted by a sovereign authority in return for services rendered or accompanying a title or otherwise bestowed gratis, or they may be lands privately purchased by a government, individual, or legal entity from their prior owners.
"Patent" is both a process and a term. As a process, it is somewhat parallel to gaining a patent for intellectual property, including the steps of uniquely defining the property at issue, filing, processing, and granting. Unlike intellectual property patents, which have time limits, a land patent is permanent.
In the
A land patent is known in law as "letters patent" and usually issues to the original grantee and to their
In practice, the irrefutability of counter-claims is relative, but once a patent is granted, permanence of title is established.
History of US land patents
Land in the United States of America was acquired by claim, seizure, annexation, purchase, treaty, or war from
peoples.As
Many original colonies' land patents came from the corresponding country of control like Great Britain. Most such patents were permanently granted. Those patents are still in force; the
Many early patents of lands originally granted by Native peoples were contested, occasionally in court, as a result of different understandings of "private property" and "ownership" between those people, who typically held land and its bounties communally, reinforced by oral tradition, and colonizers from Western Europe who held established and finite views on assets, their transfer, and their adjudication in a system of written laws, Crown rights and officials, courts, and permanent records.
After the
In accord with specific Acts of Congress and under the hand and seal of the
Firstly, the private claimant went to the land office in the land district in which the public land was located. The claimant filled out entry papers to select the public land, and the land office register (clerk) checked the local registrar records to make sure the claimed land was still available. The receiver (bursar) took the claimant's payment, because even homesteaders had to pay administrative fees.
Then, the district land office register and receiver sent the paperwork to the General Land Office in Washington. That office double-checked the accuracy of the claim, its availability and the form of payment. Finally, the General Land Office issued a land patent for the claimed public land and sent it on to the President for his signature.
The first US land patent was issued on March 4, 1788, to John Martin.
Usage restrictions (such as oil and mineral rights, roadways, ditches, and canals) placed on the land are spelled out in the patent and are distinct from state and local statutory regulations relative to property
Private property rights accompanying land patents can also be thereafter negotiated in accord with the terms of private contracts. The rights inherent in patented land are carried from heir to heir, heir to assignee, or assignee to assignee and cannot be changed except by private contract (
Legal entities other than natural persons (such as trusts and corporations) may not obtain land patents except by express act of the
Former US territories
When a
...that the people inhabiting said proposed States do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes; and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States. ..
After the right and title to land was disclaimed by the people of the territory, it was held in trust by the United States until someone proved a claim to it, typically by
References
- ^ U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records, see http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=0001-001&docClass=CV&sid=xrhhmext.4e4#patentDetailsTabIndex=1
- ^ The Republic of Texas, however, retained its unappropriated lands (see http://www.glo.texas.gov/history/archives/forms/files/history-of-texas-public-lands.pdf), and Hawaii was a conquered territory.
External links
- Land Patent information available from Bureau of Land Management
- Land Patent background information at U.S. government archives
- Land Patent supplemental information at [1]
- Detailed information about Texas' retention of its public lands upon statehood and the history of Texas' public lands and land grants available in a Texas General Land Office pdf publication at http://www.glo.texas.gov/history/archives/forms/files/history-of-texas-public-lands.pdf