The Ramblings of a Title Man

Early Land Title History in the Virginia Territory

?I have written about Williamsburg, Virginia, and the colonial era courthouse that was built there in 1749 – which today is part of the historical district – in previous editions of The Ramblings of a Title Man. In June 2015, I had the good fortune to attend the Virginia Land Title Association annual convention held in Williamsburg. The conference was really top notch. The convention was one of the best I have attended and not in any small measure due to a most interesting class during the conference called the “History of Land Titles in Virginia.”?The class not only went through the historical record of how land titles in the Virginia territory were handled over the past 400 years, but it also took a few minutes to describe one of the most complicated land titles in Virginia – the Monticello property that was Thomas Jefferson’s home. Here are some of the highlights of the 400-year history.

?In 1606, the Virginia Company of London was granted a charter by King James I for vast areas starting in the Chesapeake Bay and theoretically running as far west as the Pacific Ocean. In 1607, the company established the Jamestown Settlement. The Virginia Company began giving private grants of land to settlers and investors in 1614. In 1624, the company lost its charter and the settlement became a Royal Colony. The method of land distribution evolved to have the Royal governor make a patent in the name of the King.?From 1624 to 1779, a system of land distribution included the issuance of a “right” that allowed the settler to have the land surveyed and all documents regarding the land returned to the secretary’s office of the royal colony in Williamsburg (the capital of the colony from 1699 to 1780). If all documents were in order, the royal governor signed the patent, which became the original title document for those lands.

?The American Revolution profoundly changed how land rights were issued in the new state of Virginia. In 1779, the Virginia Legislature established a land office that accepted payments for unappropriated lands. A warrant would be issued to the purchaser showing the amount of land and the amount paid. A survey was done to establish the boundaries of the land to be granted. The holder of the warrant (warrantee) would return the warrant, survey and other documents to the land office. If no objections were filed contesting the survey within six months, the plat of survey was recorded and the governor signed a grant to the warrantee and the original delivered to him. All title to land in Virginia and many other states derived their original title either from a royal patent signed by the royal governor or from a grant signed by the governor of Virginia.

?Land disputes were common in the colonial, revolutionary war and civil war periods. Surveys of lands in Virginia were not accurate and had many problems. Even America’s first President, George Washington, worked a short time as a surveyor of Culpepper County for the 6th Lord Fairfax, handling surveys in the Northern Neck Proprietary (Fairfax Grant) covering over 5,000,000 acres.

?No chain of title is more telling of the problems that existed concerning land titles than the Monticello property that would become Thomas Jefferson’s home.?Thomas’ father, Peter, received several grants and deeds from 1735 to 1755. The last grant from King George the Second included previous grants and new lands totaling 1,900 acres on both sides of the Rivanna River. Peter Jefferson died in 1757 leaving a will and giving his son Thomas choice of the Rivanna River property or another property he owned along the James River (which was known above the Rivanna River as the “Fluvanna River”). Thomas picked the Rivanna property and continued to acquire land around the property, eventually totaling over 3,000 acres. Thomas operated several farming operations from 1757 until his death in 1826.

?At the time of Thomas Jefferson’s death in 1826, his estate had a large amount of debt. His will left a separate farm known as Poplar Forest to his grandson, Thomas J. Randolph. The rest of his estate was left to trustees for his daughter Martha Randolph. Mrs. Randolph and her husband had already received grants of land from Thomas Jefferson on the occasion of their marriage. The payment of the debts of the estate being paramount, the home known as Monticello along with the surrounding 522 acres was sold to James T. Barclay. The trustees had several problems with the sale of the Jefferson land holdings. Plats from the time show several properties were conveyed twice to different buyers.

?James Barclay, a druggist from Charlottesville, only owned the home for a short time. He negotiated to sell the home and surrounding land to Uriah Levy. A court battle ensued over the sale terms, but Levy prevailed and his deed was recorded in 1836. Uriah Levy died in 1862.

?The death of Uriah Levy and the onset of the Civil War presented double problems for the Monticello property. A U.S. Navy officer, real estate investor and philanthropist, Uriah Levy’s ownership in Monticello was confiscated by the Confederate States of America. After the end of the Civil War, lawyers for the Levy family were able to secure the return of the property along with several other tracts that had been purchased by Uriah that were part of the original plantation.

?The Levy family had many branches and heirs. Two lengthy court battles lasting from the end of the Civil War until 1879 were conducted with up to 47 possible heirs claiming interests. Jefferson Levy, Uriah’s nephew, took control of the Monticello property and spent considerable amounts of his personal fortune having Monticello preserved and restored. In 1923, a year before his death, Jefferson Levy sold the property to what is now the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. The foundation continues to this day to operate the home and property as a museum.

?Although Jefferson Levy’s will bore a request that he be buried in the Monticello cemetery, he is interred in the Beth Olom Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

?As you can see, over a 400-year period, land titles in the Virginia territory have some very interesting history.