President John Adams Grants Land to Lucas Sullivant, Who by Virtue of This Grant Became the Founder of Franklin, Ohio

Signed in the last weeks before the U.S. capital was moved from Philadelphia to Washington

The Virginia Military Lands were a body of land lying between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers in Ohio, bounded by the Ohio River on the south, and Auglaize, Hardin, and Marion Counties on the north. This tract in the southwestern part of the state contains about four million acres. The state of Virginia, from the terms of expression in its original charter from King James I of England, in the year 1609, claimed all the land west of the Ohio River. But after the attainment of American independence, this and other conflicting claims were compromised in order to set up the Northwest Territory. Virginia agreed to relinquish all her claims to the lands northwest of the Ohio River in favor of the Federal government, upon condition that the lands called Virginia Military Lands be guaranteed to her to grant to her troops who had served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Congress agreed with this arrangement in “An act to enable the officers and soldiers of the Virginia line on continental establishment, to obtain titles to certain lands lying north west of the river Ohio, between the Little Miami and Sciota.”

Document signed, Philadelphia, April 3, 1800, being one of the grants in the Virginia Military Lands. “John Adams, President of the United States of America…Greeting: Know ye, That, in consideration of military service performed by Robert Dudley (a soldier for three years) to the United States, in the Virginia Line on Continental Establishment, and in pursuance of an Act of the Congress of the United States, passed on the 10th day of August in the year 1790, entitled ‘An Act to enable the Officers and Soldiers of the Virginia Line on Continental Establishment, to obtain titles to certain lands lying north-west of the River Ohio, between the Little Miami and Sciota;’ and another Act of the said Congress Passed on the 9th day of June, in the year 1794, amendatory of the said Act, There is granted by the said United States unto Lucas Sullivant, assignee of the said Robert Dudley, a certain tract of land, containing One Hundred acres situate between the Little Miami and Sciota Rivers, north-west of the River Ohio…” The document is countersigned by Timothy Pickering as Secretary of State, and the Great Seal of the U.S. is still present.

Dudley had been a lieutenant, and his assignee, Sullivant, by virtue of this grant, became the founder of Franklin, Ohio, the first American settlement near the Scioto River.

It is noteworthy that these were the waning days of Philadelphia’s acting as the capital of the United States. Just about a month later, on May 14, the capital was moved to Washington. This is the latest presidential document we have had prior to the move to Washington.