The application provides a vivid description of the proposed tract using natural and frontier landmarks rather than surveyed boundaries. It locates the property near the head of Beaver Creek, where an Indian path crosses Willing Hill, beginning at a large limestone spring, continuing over the mountain, and specifically notes the location of an Indian wigwam before directing completion of the survey according to the terms of the Virginia Land Office.
Manuscripts documenting the opening of Virginia's western frontier are increasingly scarce, particularly those preserving contemporary references to Native American travel routes and settlements. Unlike the more commonly encountered engraved land patents, this is the original application requesting the survey itself—a significant survival from the colonial era.
Written on laid paper with a contemporary docket on the reverse reading "Survey for 5000 [acres], May 15th 1767," this manuscript is an outstanding artifact of colonial land speculation, westward expansion, and early American frontier history. An excellent addition for collectors of colonial Virginia, land grants, Native American history, Appalachian settlement, and eighteenth-century Americana.
The document is dated:
May 15, 1767
and is signed by the applicants:
- John McNutt
- Roger McNeill [surname spelling varies slightly in period handwriting]
Text [essentially]
"An application given by John McNutt and Roger McNeill for five thousand acres of land in the Great Valley within three or four of the Head of Beaver Creek where an Indian path crosses Willing Hill, beginning at a large limestone spring to the left hand... over the hill above mentioned where there was an Indian wigwam and down the north side of the mountain till the survey be completed, complying with the terms of the office."
The reverse bears a contemporary docket:
"Survey for 5000 [acres], May 15th 1767."
Historical Context
This document belongs to the great period of Virginia's western expansion before the American Revolution.
Several important features increase its historical interest:
- Dated nine years before the Declaration of Independence
- Requests a very substantial 5,000-acre tract
- Describes the land by natural landmarks rather than surveyed coordinates
- References:
- Beaver Creek
- The Great Valley
- Indian path
- Indian wigwam
- Limestone spring
- Represents the first step toward obtaining a western Virginia land survey.
These applications were submitted before official surveys and patents were issued and are considerably scarcer than the later engraved land grants.
The reference to an Indian path and an Indian wigwam is especially desirable because it documents how frontier settlers identified land using Native American travel routes and habitation sites immediately prior to large-scale settlement.
Condition- One page manuscript on laid paper
- Complete
- Original folds
- Minor edge wear
- Very legible dark ink
- Reverse docket present
- Very good condition overall
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