Beschreibung:

Title: Manuscript legal appeal to the judges of Mason County Court in Chancery regarding conflicting claims on a parcel of land, signed by Henry Lee Author: Lee, Henry Place: Mason County, Kentucky Publisher: Date: 1808 Description: 3 pages, in 4-page legal lettersheet. 31.5x10 cm. (12½x7½"). Henry Lee submits a bill to the Mason County court, for resolution in his favor of conflicting claims to 400 acres of land "on the waters of Laurences Creek and N. fork of Licking, beginning at a forked ash on a drain of Laurences Creeke marked for a corner..." The land was also claimed by William Beckley, and Lee gives some history of the conflicting claims dating back to 1777, and accuses Beckley of pre-dating a survey, "Your orator [for so Lee refers to himself] further shows, that the said Defendant having caused a survey to be made on his said Engry, contrary to location and to law, so as to interfere with your orator's claim, & having obtained a patent of older date than your orator's, now sets up his prior legal title wrongfully obtained and refuses to convey..." A very interesting document reflecting the numerous legal challenges over land titles in Kentucky, spawned in a large degree by the many grants to veterans of the American Revolution in payment for their service. Henry Lee, a native of Virginia, began his career as a surveyor and farmer. After moving to Kentucky in 1779, he represented the area in the Virginia legislature, and served as a delegate to the Virginia convention, which ratified the federal constitution. Lee also served as a delegate in the 1787 Kentucky statehood convention. Lee later served as a judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions and the Mason County Circuit Court. He also became president of the Washington Branch of the Bank of Kentucky. Lot Amendments Condition: Some darkening, but very good. Item number: 220387