Caveat – Caveats were filed to halt a land patent in progress until a court could determine if the land had been previously patented. Caveat papers often include references to the dates of settlement by the claimant, the claimant’s county of residence, and other information deemed necessary to prove a prior claim. There was a 6 month period during which Caveats could be filed before one could apply to the Land Office for a Patent or Grant. Caveat papers may include the court judgment affecting the issuance of the Grant. A Caveat Book was used by the court to record the cases filed and judgements made.

Ejection Firmae – A writ or action of trespass (where land or tenements had been leased for a term of years) and afterwards the lessor ejected or ousted the lessee of his ferme or farm. Ferme is an old English spelling of the word farm. The word ferme subsequently came to mean a house or land or both let by a lease. In old English Common Law firmae referred to a lease contract. Basically, the land owner wanted to break the lease and an ejection firmae was the way to do it.

Escheat – The reversion of property to the state upon the death of the owner when there are no heirs. An escheat usually occured when there were no children to inherit.

Headright – one method for obtaining a Warrant for land based on 50 acres for each person imported into the Colony of Virginia, sometimes specified as being from “Great Britain or Ireland”.

Hogshead – The original liquid measure was 63 “old wine gallons” first standardized by an act of English Parliament in 1423. In eighteenth century Colonial Virginia, it typically meant a large wooden barrel, approximately forty-eight inches long and thirty inches in diameter at the mouth, designed for the storage and shipment of tobacco. One hogshead contained 900 to 1,000 pounds of tobacco depending on packing. Sometimes used as a form of payment.

Indenture – At its simplest, an Indenture is an agreement that declares benefits and obligations between two or more parties – a contract. In bankruptcy law, for example, it may be a mortgage or deed of trust that constitutes a claim against a debtor.

Lease and Release – A method of conveyance of property under the use law of English Common Law. In exchange for a fee, a “Lease” of land is made by the owner of the freehold to the Leasee for one year. This vests in the Leasee the “possession” and use of the land for a year. It also makes the owner stand “seised”, unable to sell to anyone else since the land is in the “possession” of the Leasee. Now having possession of the land, the Leasee is able to receive a “Release” of the freehold which under use law must be made to the person in possession.

Messuages – Norman French: mesnage. A dwelling house with outbuildings

Planter – Among Virginians of the 18th century, the term meant a person who lived by growing crops but who was not entitled to be accorded the dignity of a Gentleman. According to Isaac, “Planters were thus men who bent their backs and hardened their hands in the fields”. Sometimes spelled “plantor”.

Preemption Warrant – A warrant issued by the commissioners of the District of Kentucky in 1779-1780 to men who had settled or had intended to settle in Kentucky County, Virginia before 1778. Early Kentucky settlers who made an improvement and planted a crop prior to January 1, 1778, were entitled to a 400-acre certificate of settlement and could purchase an additional one thousand acres adjacent to their settlement or at their improvement after paying a fee of £200 (two hundred pounds). Presumable a man had already made his preemption before being issued a preemption warrant, so this type of warrant was only for land at a particular place. Preemption warrants were also issued to men who had purchased improvements from those who had intended to settle in Kentucky. Apparently they were not issued to the widows of men who had made preemptions but who had not qualified as settlers.

Quarter – during the colonial period, 1000 acres of land used for farming but not the primary residence of the owner.

Quitrent – English land laws required colonial land owners to pay to the English Crown a quitrent or land tax of two shillings for each hundred acres of land. If a landowner failed to pay the quitrent, the Crown had the right to take back the land and grant it to another person. The money raised by this tax went into the royal treasury and was used to pay the expenses of the royal government in the colony.

Surety – A person who takes legal responsibility for the fulfillment of another’s debt or obligation. In English Common Law, a Surety is distinguished from a Guarantor by being immediately liable as opposed to becoming liable only upon default of the principal.

Viz. – abbreviation of the Latin, videlicet: that is to say, as follows, namely. Used to introduce examples, lists or items.

Warrant – The first step in the process of acquiring land from both the Colony’s Land Office in Williamsburg and the Northern Neck Proprietorship was a Warrant or an “Entry” in the County Surveyor’s book which secured the right to a survey of the land. The Warrant included a description of the land and the number of acres. In the 17th century the primary method of gaining a Warrant was the “Headright” system: 50 acres of land for each person imported into the Colony. After 21 Jun 1699 the Land Office augmented this system with the “Treasury Right” (later called Treasury Warrant) by which land could be purchased at the rate of 5 Shillings for 50 acres. The Warrant could be purchased from the Land Office in Williamsburg or locally from the County Surveyor. Warrants could be assigned, bought and sold. However, it should be noted that the Northern Neck Proprietary never used the “headright” system.

Waste Land – Colonial land Patents and Grants typically contained the phrase “have given, granted and Confirmed… a certain Tract of waste and ungranted Land”. The use of this term lies at the heart of the English justification for their right to take land in America. They broadly assumed that colonization would confer the blessings of civilization on a savage land. Their philosophy was partly religious – the devine injunction that man should “replenish the earth and subdue it” and “exercise dominion over lessors creatures” – and partly legal – that by investing labor in the land a person could stake a claim to ownership. In the English view, farming – by erecting a permanent dwelling, by domesticating animals and by building fences – clearly established legitimate claims. Indians on the other hand who did not use domesticated animals or erect fences and frequently moved their dwellings had not established legitimate claims any more than wild animals had to the lands over which they roamed, so the argument went. Philosophically uncultivated land was waste.