Land Bounty Recipient

A land bounty grant is a grant of land from a government as a reward to repay citizens for the risks and hardships they endured in the service of their country, usually in a milatary related capacity.

Bounty lands in Georgia have several unique details. The initial area set aside for the location of bounty lands included the south end of old Franklin County and the north end of old Washington County. However, the area in which a bounty petitioner could locate bounty land was expanded to include the eight original counties of Georgia. Per Bockstruck, p8, the size of the land grant in acres varied per 31 service categories. Grants of 287.5 acres were awarded to recipients with these histories:

• Private in minute battalions
• Private in militia
• Refugee private in militia
• Seaman in galleys
• Citizen
• Deserter from the British

Bockstruck p. 9 describes Georgia's bounty grant recipients under six categories, noting that many recipients qualified for land grants under more than one category:

• Those who served in the Continental Army
• Minute battalions — men who were non-residents of Georgia at the time of their enlistment
• Militia who spring up to hangle local emergencies and then disappeared
• Refugees who were former Georgia residents who fled the state when the British reimposed royal authority and served in the militia regiments of neighboring South Carolina and North Carolina
• Citizen
• Deserter from the British

The application process for bounty land grants.

• Those in the army or navy had to obtain a voucher from the commanding officer of their unit or battalion.
• They then presented to voucher to an Executive Council which sat as a Land Court in each county.
• If approved by that Council, the governor issued a numbered certificate in the name of the petitioner, giving his name; his classification of refugee, minuteman, or citizen; the acreage; and the name of the certifying officer found on the initial certificate.
• The Council would then issue a numbered warrant directing the county surveyor to lay out the acreage stated in the bounty.
• The county surveyor or his deputy would then survey the land which the applicant had selected and make three plats, keeping one and forwarding the other two to the Surveyor General.
• The Surveyor General would record and file one plat and attach the third copy to the warrant.
• The Surveyor General would transmit one copy of the plat and executed warrant to the Secretary of State, who would issue the grant after the filing fee had been paid.
• The designation of bounty would then be entered in the grant book.

Sources citing registries of bounty land grants.

• Loose Headright and Bounty Documents File, Series 035, Georgia Dept. of Archives and History.
  Silas Emmet Lucas has indexed these loose records. ⁽³⁴⁾ A photo of Lucas' index shows these records of interest under surname Shannon:
  • "Jno" Shannon: Franklin County, the year 1784, Grant Book EEE, P. 224, for 287.5 acres
  • "Jno" Shannon: Wilkes County, the year 1785, Grant Book GGG, p. 330 for 225 acres.
  • Owen Shannon: Franklin County, the year 1785, Grant Book GGG, p. 538 for 287.5 acres
  • "Thos" Shannon: Wilkes County, the year 1784, Grant Book DDD, p. 339 for 200 acres
• Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants Awarded by State Governments, Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland. 1996. Source images: Title Page — "S" index page 473 — "S" index page 474
  • John Shannon, Georgia, July 19, 1784, 287.5 acres
  • Owen Shannon, Georgia, May 24, 1784, 287.5 acres
  • Thomas Shannon, Georgia, Apr. 13, 1784, 287.5 acres
• Georgia's Revolutionary Bounty Land Records, 1783-1785, transcribed by Nicole M. O'Kelley & Mary Bondurant Warren, Heritage Papers, 1992, pp 23, 71. Source images: Title Page — p. 23 — p. 71
  • O'Kelley & Warren list Thomas Shannon's bounty land grant dated Feb. 25, 1784, in a section for "persons claiming as Refugees, Citizens & by Resolve of 19th August 1781 an Act of the 20th by his Honor John Houstoun, Esqr., Governor."