JOSEPH STIGGINS LAND CLAIM
CASE # 235
Monday, May 20, 1805
Claim---A right to eight hundred acres, by virtue of a Spanish warrant of survey, under the first section of the act.
The claimant presented his claim, together with a surveyor's plot of the land claimed, in the words and figures following, to wit:
To the Commissioners appointed in pursuance of an act of Congress passed passed the 3d day of March, 1803, for receiving and adjusting claims to land south of Tennessee and east of Pearl river.
Please to take notice, that the following tract of land, lying east of the Mobile river, bounded on the east by lands belonging to the Unied States, south, by Mrs Steel's donation, west, by the Tensaw lake, and north, by a donation of Joseph Siggins, representative of Coleman and others, is claimed by Joseph Stiggins, representative of John Johnson, Esq. by virtue of the first section of said act, under a Spanish warrant, bearing the date of 9th of February, 1788. To all which he begs leave to refer, as also to a copy of the plot herewith filed.
Joseph Stiggins
Representative of John Johnson, Esq
It appearing from the files in this case, that there was no plot with the notice, which was filed with the Register on the 11th June, 1804, John Milliken, the surveyor was duly sworn, and did depose, that, to the best of his recollection and belief, he filed a plot with said notice, on the 11th day of June, 1804; that the plot which he filed with the Register was afterwards brought to him by Stiggins; and that he, Milliken, made out a plot different from the one originally filed, and gave it to Stiggins; but whether he filed the altered plot or the original with the Register he could not say, but believed he did file the same, as amended, previous to the first of May, 1805, and that the plot now filed was conformable to the one amended by him for Stiggins.
The claimant exhibited a Spanish warrant of survey, in the words and figures following, to wit:
Don Estevan Miro, Colonel of the army, Governor of the province of Louisiana:
Mobile, January 14, 1788
John Johnson, inhabitant within the jurisdiction of Mobile, with all due respect, represents to your excellency, that there is on the bank of the Tensaw river a vacant piece of land of twenty acres, which to this period never has had any proprietor, he therefore humbly expects that the generosity of your excellency will grant him the property of said land, with the ordinary depth, giving orders to the Secretary of Government, of your city, for the concession of the said titles; therfore he entreats your excellency to grant him this favor.
John Johnson
Don Vicent Folch, captain of the regiment of Louisiana and commandant of Mobile. I certify that the land which is solicited is vacant, according to the information that has been taken from several inhabitants, and in witness whereof I sign this, the date as above.
Vicent Folch
The surveyor of this province, Don Carlos Laveau Trudeau, will establish this petitioner on the twenty acres of land of front, which is solicited, tith the commond depth of forty acres, in the place indicated in the antecedent memorial, the same being vacant, and causing no prejudice to any one whatever, under the precise condition of making the road, and the regular clearing in the term of a year; and this concession to be null if, at the expiration of three years, the groud benot established, and until that time not to be alienated; after the fulfilment of which conditions the regular titles of propriety will be made out and granted.
Estevan Miro
Mobile, March 10, 1788
I certify that the antecedent copy is equal to its original, kwhich is in the archives of this place.
Santiago De La Saussaye
Penscacola, February 22, 1804
I do certify that the above is, to the best of my knowledge and judgment, a faithful translation of a Spanish document, transmitted to me by Mr. Joseph Stiggins, inhabitant of Tensaw.
James Innerarity
Entered in the record of Claims by Edward LLoyd Wailes, for Joseph Chambers, Register
The claimant exhibited three deeds or writings, that is to say, a deed from John Johnson, bearing date the 8th day of January, 1796, conveying to Arthur Rials, all right, title, and interest, which the said Johnson had to said tract of land, and the improvements thereon; a deed from Samuel Lyons, bearing date the 8th day of November, 1796, conveying to Joseph Stiggins all the said Lyon's right and title to said land and the improvements; also a deed from Arthur Rials, bearing date the 11th day of November, 1796, conveying to Joseph Stiggins all the said Rials's right, title, and claim to the aforesaid tract of land, and the improvements thereon made.
Rueben Dyer and Benjamin Pyburn were presented as witnesses, and being duly sworn and interrogated by the Board, they deposed, that they were not interested in this claim; that, as well as they recollected, the land in question was cultivated on the 27th day of October, 1795, by James Upton or William Hillis, and that the said land was cultivated for a considerable time before the year 1795, to the use of John Johnson, and continued in cultivation until it went into the possession of the said Upton or Hillis; that the said Johnson was, on the 9th day of February, 1788, twentyone years of age, and the head of a family, that the cultivation of the said land, by the said Upton or Hillis, was to the use of Samuel Lyons.
The Board ordered that the case be postponed for consideration.
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