John Petty Land Grant
3rd Stamp. 4 Reales. Validated by the Mexican Nation for the year of 1824. Austin [Rubric]
The interested party paid in this Court of my charge 4 reales, cost of the foregoing stamp. Town of San Felipe de Austin, August 5, 1824. Sylvenus Castleman
Town of San Felipe de Austin, August 7, 1824. Empresario D. Estevan F. Austin shall report as to whether the applicant has the circumstances and requisites necessary to merit the favor he solicits. Bastrop [Rubric]
No. 292 Honorable Commissioner Baron de Bastrop: [I,] John Petty, native of the United States of America and now a resident of this Province of Texas, appear before you and say: That, having moved to this place with the intention of settling in the colonial settlement of Empresario D. Estevan F. Austin, established by permission of the Superior Government of the Mexican Nation, I hope that in admitting me with my family as one of the settlers of said colony you will be pleased to grant me and put me in possession of that portion of land which the law concedes to colonists, with the understanding that I am prepared to cultivate whatever may be assigned to me, abiding by the governing laws in all cases, and to defend the rights of Independence and the liberty of the nation. Therefore, I ask you to please do as I have set forth, wherein I shall receive favor and justice. Town of San Felipe de Austin, August 7, 1824 [s]John Petty
Honorable Commissioner:
Pursuant to your foregoing decree, I must say that the inhabitant petitioner, John Petty, is worthy of the favor he solicits and may be admitted as a resident of this new colony by virtue of his good qualities and circumstances and well-known application to agriculture, stock raising and industries; and in consideration thereof he may be granted one league of land. San Felipe de Austin, August 7, 1824 Estevan F. Austin [Rubric]
In the Town of San Felipe de Austin, on the 9th day of August of the year1824, the Baron de Bastrop, sixth member of the Most Excellent Provincial Deputation of Texas, Commissioner of the Government, and Estevan F. Austin, Empresario to establish a new colony in this Province; by virtue of the commission that the Governor of this Province, Lieutenant Colonel D. Luciano Garcia, conferred on the former in his decree of July 16, 1823, and of the order of the Political Chief of this Province, D. Jose' Antonio Saucedo, dated June 23, 1824, and of the powers vested in both in consequence of the decree of the Superior Mexican Government dated February 18th, confirmed by the decrees of the Sovereign Constituent Congress and the Supreme Executive Power dated the 11th and 14th of April of the year 1823, and of the decree which the Commandant General of these Provinces, Brigadier D. Felipe de la Garza, issued on the 16th day of June of the aforesaid year in the record of proceedings considered at the instance of said Empresario D. Estevan F. Austin relative to the emigration of three hundred foreign families that are to be settled as colonists in this Province, exercising the powers vested in us by said commission and decrees, and in consideration of the merits and circumstances which concur in the person of the petitioner, John Petty, as appears by the preceding report, we have agreed to grant and concede and in the name of the Government of the Mexican Nation do by these presents grant and concede unto said John Petty, his heirs and successors, one league of land situated on the east margin of the Colorado River and between the La Bahia and Atascosito roads, without the facilities of irrigation, of which [land] we will put him in possession and deliver to him the corresponding title for this security as soon as he shall have paid the fees designated in the Fee Bill circulated by the Political Chief of the Province of Texas on the 20th of May of this year, and in testimony thereof we hereunto subscribe with assisting witnesses on the day, month and year above written, which we certify. El Baron de Bastrop [Rubric] Estevan F. Austin [Rubric]
Assisting Witnesses
John Austin [Rubric] Samuel M. Williams [Rubric]
[We], said Commissioner Baron de Basgrop and Empresario Estevan F. Austin; the witnesses, James Cook, James McNair, Hugh McKinsie; the adjacent landowner; surveyor Rawson Alley; and the interested party, John Petty, went to the aforesaid league which by the preceding decree we have granted to the individual last named on the east margin of the Colorado River and between the La Bahia and Atascosito roads; and the surveyor began at the lower corner of Simon Asa Anderson's league on said margin of said river; thence he surveyed 5,650 varas northeast, where a landmark was set in the prairie at a distance of 23 varas from a pecan bearing north 10 degrees west; thence southeast 4,520 varas, where another landmark was set at a distance of 100 varas from a post oak marked JT bearing north 55 degrees west and 83 varas from a black oak bearing southeast; thence south 37 degrees west 4,000 varas to said Colorado River at an elm marked JT, situated at a distance of 1 1/2 varas from another elm bearing north 3 degreees east and 9 varas from another elm marked JD bearing south 9 degrees east; and thence following he meanders of the river upward to where the first line began, comprising one league of land in area; bouned on the southwest by said Colorado River; on the northwest by the league of the adjacent landowner, Simon Asa Anderson; and on the other sides by lands of the Nation.
We put the aforesaid John Petty in possession of said tract, taking him by the hand, leading him over it, telling him in a loud and understandable voice that by virtue of the commission and the authority vested in us, and in the name of the Government of the Mexican Nation, we put him in possession of said tract, with all its uses, customs, rights, and appurtenances, for him, his heirs, and successors; and the aforementioned John Petty, as a token of finding himself in real and personal possession of said tract without any opposition, shouted, pulled grass, threw stones, set stakes, and performed the other necessary ceremonies, being notified of his obligation to cultivate it within the two-year term prescribed by the law; and in evidence theeof, we, the aforesaid Commissioner Baron de Bastrop and Empresario Estevan F. Austin, hereunto subscribe with assisting witnesses, lacking a notary, in the terms of the law, which we certify. In the Town of San Felipe de Austin, on the 10th day of August of 1824.
El Baron de Bastrop [Rubric] Estevan F. Austin [Rubric]
Assisting Witnesses John Austin [Rubric]
Samuel M. Williams [Rubric]Contributed by Barbara Chandler Spray
[Note: This John Petty who received one league of land in Stephen F. Austin's Colony is not the same person who founded Pettytown, Tx in Bastrop Co. The grantee who received this land was an older man who later relocated to Brenham. The land he was given was situated between present day LaGrange and Glidden on the east side of the Colorado River. One league of land was equal to 4,428.4 acres]
