Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun US A legal grant of land to settlers in colonial America

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A headright was a tract of land, usually fifty acres, given to anyone over age fifteen—male or female—who settled in Virginia.

    History of American Women Maggiemac 2007

  • This was known as the headright system of granting land.

    Domestic Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century Annie Lash Jester

  • Georgia continued its headright system until past 1800.27 Raucous squabbles, arising under state and federal pre-emption laws, and the law and practice of local land offices, were meat and bread to Western lawyers.

    A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985

  • Georgia continued its headright system until past 1800.27 Raucous squabbles, arising under state and federal pre-emption laws, and the law and practice of local land offices, were meat and bread to Western lawyers.

    A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985

  • Georgia continued its headright system until past 1800.27 Raucous squabbles, arising under state and federal pre-emption laws, and the law and practice of local land offices, were meat and bread to Western lawyers.

    A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985

  • The women who availed themselves of the headright during its brief existence, however, demonstrated their independence and willingness to pursue options other than the traditional ones that society assigned them.

    History of American Women Maggiemac 2007

  • Grant by headright continued immediately to account for the great majority of land patents issued, but after the first quarter of the eighteenth century it gradually fell into disuse.

    Mother Earth Land Grants in Virginia 1607-1699 Walter Stitt Robinson

  • Therefore, all persons so listed under the headright claim cannot be considered indentured servants.

    Mother Earth Land Grants in Virginia 1607-1699 Walter Stitt Robinson

  • Upon completion of the survey and of marking the boundaries, a copy of the record along with the headright certificate was presented to the secretary's office where a patent was prepared and a notation made of those imported.

    Mother Earth Land Grants in Virginia 1607-1699 Walter Stitt Robinson

  • This provision for the fifty-acre headright was set up for the seven-year period prior to Midsummer Day of 1625, but it continued beyond this date as the essential key to Virginia's land policy of the seventeenth century.

    Mother Earth Land Grants in Virginia 1607-1699 Walter Stitt Robinson

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