| Notes |
- Thomas and Lucy Bassett moved to Washington County, Alabama in the 1760's. He received a Land Grant from the Governor at Pensacola, Florida in 1776 for lands near the River Tombigbee. This was later changed to a Spanish patent and then reverted to a United States grant after that portion of Alabama was made a part of the Mississippi Territory. He was killed by Indians in 1781 at Bassett's Creek in Clarke County, Alabama. His home was on Bassett's Creek in Washington County, Alabama. Both creeks were named for him.
According to Carter's American State Papers, Lucy and son Thomas were living in New Orleans in 1794.
The 750 acre plot mentioned below is the 750 acres tract at McIntosh Bluff also called Thomas Bluff. The other 1,050 acres tract was situated on the Tombigbee River, on Bassetts Bayou, called Bassetts Creek.
"Claim: Of seven hundred and fifty acres, as administrator of Nathaniel Bassett, deceased, who was son and heir of Thomas Bassett, deceased, under a British Grant, confirmed by a Spanish warrant of survey, under the first section of the act.
The claimant exhibited his claim, together with a surveyor's plot of the land claimed, in the following words and figures, to wit: To the Commissioners appointed in pursuance of the act of Congress, passed the 3rd day of March, 1803, for surveying and adjusting the claims to lands south of the Tennessee and east of Pearl river.
Please to take notice that the following tract of lands, situated on the river Tombigbee, in the county of Washington, beginning at a sassafras, running thence north, eighty-two degrees west, one hundred and twenty-five chains and seventy-five links, to a pine corner; thence, south, eighty degrees west, fifty-nine chains and twenty eight links, to a black jack; thence, south eighty-two degrees east, ninety-two chains, to a white ash on the river; thence, with the river, to the beginning; containing seven hundred and fifty acres, is claimed by Thomas Bassett, administrator of Nathaniel Bassett, in and by virtue of a British and Spanish grant, having giveth shape, form and marks, both natural and artificial, are fully represented in the plot annexed, and is now exhibiited at the register of the land office, to be recorded as directed by said act. To all which he begs leave to (aver?), as also to a copy of the plot herewith filed.
THOMAS BASSETT,
Administrator of Nathaniel Bassett, March 19, 1804
PETITION TO CONGRESS BY NATHANIEL BASSETT
December 13, 1819
To the Honorable, The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, In Congress, Assembled.
The Petition of the undersigned Nathaniel Bassett (by William Russell his Agent) Respectfully Showeth.
That the said Nathaniel Bassett in the Year 1803, and for many Years before that time, resided in the district of Arkansas in the province of Louisiana, then under the Spanish Government; That he has remained in the same tract of country up to the present time; And that in the said Year 1803; He applied to Casso. Y. Luengo then Spanish commandant at the post of Arkansas for a tract of six hundred and forty Arpens of land, which the said Casso. Y. Luengo then Spanish commandant at the Post of Arkansas Granted to Your Petitioner by a Grant in writing bearing date the 20th day of March in the said Year 1803; which said six hundred and forty arpens of land so Granted to Your Petitioner is situate on the bayou Glaize, And is the only tract of land ever owned or claimed by Your Petitioner in his own right in the said province of Louisiana.--Thay Your Petitioner caused a notice of his title and claim, (with his said Grant) to be recorded by, and in the office of the Recorder of land titles in Missouri Territory. And that the said claim of Your Petitioner has been Reported by the late Board of Commissioners of Missouri Territory to the Secretary of the United States Treasury un-confirmed: All of which appears by the report of said Board of Commissioners under date of July 16th 1811 - Page 137 of said report.
Congress haveing reserved to themselves by law, the right and the power of makeing final decision on all claims not confirmed by said Board of Commissioners, or by the Recorder of land Titles: Your Petitioner had not suspected that his claim would remain as it has done, more than eight Years undecided by Congress, after being reported to the Secretary of Treasury According to Law - Which delay has been to Your Petitioner distressingly, and as he conceives unnecessarily & unjustly oppressive: And is the more alarming because the tract of country in which his land is situate, between the Saint Francis & Arkansas rivers, has been subdivided into Sections, reported fit for cultivation, And liable to be alloted away to satisfy Military bounties, before any final decision (as the laws of Congress have promised) has been made by Congress on the claim of Your Petitioner, whilst measures are progressing, for planting the Soldiers of the late Army upon his lands, bearing more the appearance of decideing his claim (and such claims) by force, or according to Power, than by the final legal adjudication of Congress as the laws have promised and Induced a belief.
The aforesaid Grant of six hundred and forty Arpens of land, made and delivered to Your Petitioner, though not a complete Spanish Title, was such as that Government by makeing and delivering the Grant were bound to complete; and was intended to be reserved, and not ceded to the United States by the second Article of the Treaty by which the United States acquired Louisiana; and rightfully ought to be considered of equal merit with very many claims already confirmed by an act of Congress "For the final adjustment of land titles in the State of Louisiana and Territory of Missouri" passed April 12, 1814. Which amongst other things provides that every (Bonafide) Incomplete french or Spanish Grant, Concession, Warrant, or order of Survey, which was Granted for lands lying within the Territory of Missouri before the 10th day of March 1804; where claims have been filed with the proper Register or Recorder of land titles according to law; In every case when It Shall appear, that the concession, warrent or order of survey, under which the claim is made contains a Special Location, or had been actually Located or Surveyed within the Territory of Missouri before the 10th day of March 1804, & c-Such persons Shall be and they are hereby confirmed in their claims. No "One to claim a greater quantity of land, than the number of acres contained in One League Square.-
By this section of law very many claims much larger in extent than that of your Petitioner have been confirmed, without any other differance of title, than that those confirmed contained on the face of the Grant a Special location, or had been surveyed by an Authorised Surveyor prior to the 10th of March 1804 - Neither of which circumstances under the Spanish Government would have affected the title in any material degree or in any other way, than that the claim located would exclude from the same ground any after location. - But a Grant containing a special location within itself, were always as easily obtained and thought no better than grants without such special location; mere words written on paper, without a single Artificial mark of line or boundary, is no more evidence that the grant itself is fair or Bona fide than if id did not contain those words, and such Grants located by mere words in writeing, never were considered any better titles than Grants not so located, untill the aforesaid Act of Congress made them so, by createing a distinction never before known; - Actual survey in either case, being still necessary to precede the Patent.
In most parts of Louisiana it was as conveniant (though a little more expensive) to make the location in the first instance, by an official survey of an Authorised Surveyor, as in any other way: Which in the settlements near the post of Arkansas, was so nearly impossible, that to procure an official survey by an Authorixed Surveyor at the time of the Grant, would have actually cost your Petitioner more than the land was then worth: There being at that time, and untill the United States Acquired Louisiana no Authorised surveyor under the Spanish Government more convenient to Arkansas than the neighbourhood of New Orleans: And as the title under these circumstances, would never have been Annulled by the Spanish Government, for the want, or delay of survey: And not knowing or suspecting that such titles must pass the ordeal of criticism of another Nation, nor the pre-eminent advantage that would be given to claims located by words, or by survey, before a given day (then unknown)- There was at that time no inducement for Your Petitioner to have his claim located by a few additional words in the Grant: And still less inducement to make and expense equal to the value of the land to procure an official survey. For which reasons Your Petitioner contented himself, to Join with others who wished to locate their claims in the same neighbourhood, and to prevent their claims interfereing, in Good faith as neighbours, did employ a private surveyor to survey and mark a part of their lines and corners on trees, &c - Which was done in the aforesaid claim of your Petitioner in the Year 1803 - As the marks on the trees more incontestably prove, with less possibility of deceiving, than locations by words written on paper. But these facts may not appear in proof by the aforesaid report of the Board of Commissioners: It having been just about as conveniant and but little less expensive for claimants of lands in the neighbourhood of Arkansas, to Give evidence of the facts relative to their claims before a Board of Commissioners or Recorder of Land Titles At Saint Louis as it was to bring an Authorised Surveyor from New Orleans in 1803. Saint Louis (distance of four or five hundred miles from Arkansas) being the residence of the Board of Commissioners and Recorder of land titles, by neither of which tribunals was any depositions or evidence of titles admited, without the witnesses appeared there in person before them, which to Arkansas claimants ensured an expense but little short of the value of the land, and in some instances more than the change of the title would bring, from which considerations, Your Petitioner was obliged to content himself by sending his Title papers to be recorded and relying on them alone: Without encountering the expense of takeing witnesses personally to Saint Louis.
The only reason known to Your Petitioner for his aforesaid claim yet remaining unconfirmed, Is because it had not been officially Surveyed by a duly Authorised Surveyor prior to the 10th of March 1804: Which Your Petitioner conceives for the reasons aforesaid ought not to bar the confirmation of his Title: It being as much intended to be reserved as private property by the second Article of the Treaty that ceded Louisiana to the United States, as grants containing within themselves a special location which are now recognised and confirmed by act of Congress. - It would seem both unreasonable and unjust to withhold a confirmation for want of performances not reasonable under the circumstances to be performed, more particularly injurious to the inhabitants of Arkansas than any Other part of the country, because it was further removed from the residence of any Authorised Surveyor under the Spanish Government; and so far removed from the residence of the Board of Commissioners or Recorder of land titles under the American Government as to operate nearly equal to a denial of common previlages in adduceing evidence in support of Arkansas claims. - Wherefor, and for the foregoing decision of Congress upon his claim and title, as it may seem to merit, according to Treaty, Law, right and Justice - measured in the same measure of liberality, Good faith and legal right, That Has been and ought to be extended to other claims of equal comparative merit. - The delay of a final decision until now on the claim of Your Petitioner haveing been greatly to his loss, injury and inconveniance, And about sixteen years haveing already elapsed since the cession of Louisiana to the United States without being yet able to obtain any final decision thereon (which right of decision Congress have by law reserved to themselves) Your Petitioner indulges the hope, that his now asking for a final decision without further delay, will not be thought an unreasonable request.
And your Petitioner as in duty bound will ever pray - December 13th 1819.
Wm Russell
Agent for Nathaniel Bassett
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Bassett Family Association Database
- Aft 1800