Tennessee Land Grants Primer

This is derived from a neat website describing TN land grants.
http://www.tn.gov/tsla/history/guides/guide10.htm

Early Tennessee land acquisition is probably more complex than any other state because of the different governments and the time involved in processing grants. North Carolina, the United States Territory South of the River Ohio, and Tennessee, successively governed this land. Since the Indians assisted the British in the American Revolution, North Carolina believed they had relinquished their title to the land. The United States government honored Indian ownership and required title by treaty before granting land. In an 1806 compact, North Carolina, the United States, and Tennessee, agreed that Tennessee could issue grants, provided they honored all land warrants already issued by North Carolina, as well as any warrants they were required to issue. This took time.

When North Carolina took control of her lands from the Crown in 1777, she established land entry offices in each of her counties. At that time, all of the occupied land in what is now Tennessee was Washington County, North Carolina. Settlement was primarily confined to northeast Tennessee. For forty shillings per hundred acres, each head of a family could buy six hundred and forty acres for himself and one hundred acres for his wife and each child. Any amount of land above that cost five pounds per one hundred acres. By 1779, the population had increased and an entry takers office was opened in Sullivan County, North Carolina (now Tennessee). These offices closed in 1781. 

{skip ahead...}

Before the American Revolution, the person desiring the land paid the fees and obtained a warrant and grant from the governor's office. After the Revolution, the fees were paid to the entry taker’s office. The enterer, or someone for him, such as a real estate agent, sometimes called a locator, actually went upon the land desired, marked the trees and wrote a rough description of the land desired, specifying its bounds and describing its monuments. This entry was taken to the entry taker at the local land office. The location of the appropriate land office depended upon the type of grant to be received, i. e., military, purchase, or pre-emption.

The entry taker searched his records, and if he determined no one had previously entered that particular land, he copied the entry into his well-bound book and gave it the next number in sequence, called an entry or location number. The entry taker used his own shorthand. In most entry books, “L” described the location or entry number; the “W” described the warrant number; the “D” described the date; the “A” described the acreage. Sometimes the locator was identified and other information pertaining to that particular entry may be given. Often, the date was specified only by day and it is necessary to search previous pages for the month and year. After three months, if no one else claimed that he had previously entered that land, the entry taker issued a warrant which authorized the surveyor to make the survey.

The surveyor used a thirty-three foot chain carried by two people in measuring the boundaries. Another person, called a marker, marked the land as it was measured. All were sworn "the truth to tell." The surveyor drew, to scale, the boundaries of the tract, giving an accurate description of the land, noting the streams, corner trees, etc. The drawing was called the plat and the boundary description was called the certificate of survey. The certificate of survey included the names of the sworn chain carriers indicated as “SCC.”

Allen Shanklin Land Grant from 1848.

The warrant and survey were sent to the North Carolina Secretary of State, who prepared the grant and attested the governor's signature to it. The grant was returned to the entry taker, who notified the recipient via the newspaper that he could pick up his grant from the land office. The process usually took 18 months to 2 years to complete during which time the recipient sat tax-free on his land. 

[jumping ahead]

West Tennessee (the area west of the Tennessee River) was known as the Congressional Reservation District. North Carolina had sold many large land grants in that area, but since an Indian treaty was not signed for it until 1818, the federal government closed the area until that time. In 1806, Middle Tennessee was known as West Tennessee. Tennessee set up two Boards of Commissioners - one for West (Middle) Tennessee and one for East Tennessee. Before Tennessee could issue a grant, it had to be approved by one of these boards. At the same time, Tennessee surveyed the land into districts and appointed land officers for each district. They tried to follow the federal government’s edict that the land be surveyed in township and range, and in a few areas usage of both township and range, as well as metes and bounds were attempted. It did not work very well and eventually became metes and bounds. The record books of these two Boards are included in the microfilmed Record Group 50. The loose papers are not processed or microfilmed at this time.

The North Carolina Military District became District 1; Districts 2 through 8 were East Tennessee and Southern Middle Tennessee. The real West Tennessee, in 1818, was surveyed into Districts 9 through 13.