Graham v. Dudley

• Citation: 3 Tenn. 353
• Parties: GRAHAM v. DUDLEY.
• Decision Date: 01 January 1813
• Court: Tennessee Circuit Court

3 Tenn. 353

GRAHAM

v.DUDLEY.

Circuit Court, W.D. Tennessee.

1813.

In support of the title of the lessor of the plaintiff he produced a grant from the state of North Carolina to William Mebane, dated the 14th day of March, 1787, for seven thousand two hundred acres of land, and a deed from Mebane to him dated the 1st day of October, 1790. The defendant claimed under a grant from the state of North Carolina dated 31st day of December, 1793, and an entry made the 20th day of December, 1783, in the name of John Read, calling for ‘three thousand eight hundred and forty acres lying on Little Harpeth, beginning above Absalom Tatum's line, and up said river on both sides for complement.’ The entry is No. 160, and stands on the seventh page of the entry book. The plaintiff then produced an entry, alleging it to be the one upon which his grant issued, dated the 7th day of February, 1784, calling to lie ‘on Harpeth, adjoining Absalom Tatum's line above.’ This entry was for five thousand two hundred acres, and stands on the first page of the entry taker's book. It appeared in evidence that in the month of February, 1783, Absalom Tatum, Isaac Shelby, and Anthony Bledsoe, did, in pursuance of an appointment by the state of North Carolina, run the military line, and that for this service they were entitled to receive five thousand acres of land. That the commissioners kept a record of their proceedings in a book in which was entered the claims of the guards as well as their own, under a belief at that time that no other entry need be made; and that this book remained in this country, where a general knowledge existed that it contained such entries, for several years, when it was burned by the Indians. It also appeared that Tatum, when he run what is called the western line, the commissioners having divided into three parties, made known his intention to locate his five thousand acres at or near the ten-mile tree, where the line crosses West Harpeth. The claim was notorious at and before the 20th day of December, 1783, as any object in the country. At that time also West Harpeth was notorious, and so was Little Harpeth. Tatum had no other claim in the country. In the spring of 1783 the legislature of North Carolina made provision that the commissioners, guards, etc., should make their entries in the pre-emption office of Davidson county, in pursuance of which Tatum, on the 5th day of February, 1784, entered his five thousand acres, calling to begin ‘west of the ten-mile tree, and to run south and north and east of quantity, so as to include the creek,’ meaning West Harpeth. Evidence was introduced to prove that the entry thus made was a copy...