Texas became a Republic following the defeat of Santa Ana’s Army and the first Congress of the Republic met in December 1836 to define the boundaries of the new Republic which contained about 216,000,000 acres. Since land was the only existing resource of the new Republic, it was used to reward soldiers, to promote settlement of the new Republic and to finance the operation of the Government.

The Texas Land Office was therefore established and authorized to issue public lands as follows:

BOUNTY GRANTS were issued to soldiers in proportion to their length of service – initially 640 acres (later increased to 800 acres) were awarded to those who served in the regular army for two years or throughout the war and 320 acres were awarded to those who served for three months. If a volunteer died in service, his Grant was awarded to his heirs plus an additional 640 acres.

NOTE: John McAdams, Jr. served in the army from July to October 1836 and received a 320 acre Bounty Grant (Land Patent No. 222) which he directly assigned to J.C. Hill in May 1848. This property is located in the Eastern part of downtown Tyler.

In December, 1837, Congress passed a new Bounty Act giving 320 acres for every 3 months of service up to a year for a limit of 1280 acres per soldier.

In 1840, Texas still needed defense against the Indians and so the Congress passed the 1840 Bounty Act which provided 160 acres of land near military posts on the frontier to men serving in a frontier regiment. However, since there was not enough vacant land near the Army Forts, these men were instead granted 240 acres of vacant land anywhere in the Republic.

DONATION GRANTS of 640 acres were issued to soldiers who participated in specific battles (Alamo, Goliad, San Jacinto, Siege of Bexar, or those guarding the baggage train at Harrisburg).

To obtain a Bounty or a Donation Grant, the qualifying soldier ("Grantee") was required to obtain and present a Certificate of service signed by his Company Commander and at least one field officer. The Certificate was then presented by the Grantee to the Land Office together with the survey of the specific property he had selected. A Land Patent would then be issued to the Grantee provided the property was within the Public Land and there were no conflicts with the property ownership.

In most cases these grants could be and often were directly transferable by the "Grantee" to another recipient. Therefore the person who would actually receive the land patent was designated the "Patentee".

FIRST CLASS HEADRIGHT GRANTS were established to encourage established settlers to remain in Texas. Every head of household (male or female) living in Texas on March 2, 1836 received a League and a Labor of land (4605 acres) and single men at least 17 years old received 1/3 League (1476 acres)

NOTE: Since John, Sr. and family immigrated to Texas in 1834, he received a "head of household" first class headright grant of 4605 acres in1846 (Land Patent No. 610) in what is now Panola County. This property is nearby the town of Long Branch in East Texas.

John, Jr. who, in 1836 was unmarried at the age of 19, received 1476 acres in Sabine County between Shelbyville and Milam (Land Patent No. 819). This property is now part of the Sabine National Forest. After John, Jr.’s marriage to Hester White in 1838, he also received an additional nearby 2189 acres (Land Patent No. 195) having then become qualified as a "head of household".

SECOND CLASS HEADRIGHT GRANTS were established in 1837. These grants provided 1280 acres to heads of families and 640 acres to single men who had settled in Texas between March 2, 1836 and October 1, 1837. This was a conditional grant which required the "Grantee" to remain in Texas for three years, perform duties of citizenship and pay surveying and other fees.

THIRD CLASS HEADRIGHT GRANTS were issued to those arriving in Texas between October 1, 1837 and January 1, 1840. Heads of families were awarded 640 acres and single men were entitled to 320 acres. A three year residency was also a requirement.

FOURTH CLASS HEADRIGHT GRANTS were established in 1842 and extended the provisions of third class grants to those arriving in Texas from January 1, 1840 up to January 1, 1842. However, these grants also required the owners to cultivate at least 10 acres of the granted property.

SPECIAL HEADRIGHT GRANTS

• Soldiers that arrived in Texas between March 2, 1836 and August 2, 1836 were granted 4605 acres as head of a family
• Civilians who came to Texas between March 2, 1836 and August 2, 1836 were granted a second class headright of 1280 acres
• Heirs of soldiers that had fallen with Travis, Fannin, Grant or Johnson in 1836 were awarded a special headright grant
• Veterans permanently disabled in service were awarded one League of land (4428 acres).

After 1841, Congress established the Impressario Act which provided special grants or colonization contracts to attract immigrants from outside the Republic. This Act was repealed on January 30, 1844 after conveying about 4.5 million acres under this act.

Information taken from: www.glo.state.tx.us/archives/history/republic_texas.html

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