Pennsylvania State Archives

During William Penn's administration an application was an oral request to locate, rent, or buy a particular piece of land. Originally, such requests were not recorded but from 1687 requests were recorded in the minute books of the Commissioners of Property. These can be found in the published Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Volume 19 and Third Series, Volume 1. After William Penn's death in 1718 no land titles could be granted in Pennsylvania until estate litigation was settled. During these years, the provincial government issued tickets that would later serve as the basis for drawing up patents when the regular land office reopened. During the administration of the proprietary government the formal written application for a warrant became a regular part of the series of records necessary to warrant and patent land. Between 1732 and 1765 applications consisted of an individual's request for a warrant that was either written on a small scrap of paper or listed on a longer sheet of paper together with other requests originating from the same geographic area and carried to the Land Office by a representative. Unlike the applications for some other states, those in Pennsylvania rarely contain any information except the name of the applicant, the acreage, and the general location of the tract, nor do they normally bear the applicant's handwriting or signature. (The only exceptions are Proof of Settlement Certificates (series 17.214) issued under the Vacant Land Act of 1792 that sometimes provide a description of any buildings present, the state of cultivation of the land, or other improvements to the property.)

By the 1760s the assumption that all unwarranted country land within the purchases of 1754 and earlier was vacant and unimproved had given way to the realization that thousands of squatters had already settled upon the land. On June 17, 1765 a new application system was implemented making a formal application the required first step in the patenting process. The new procedures also introduced a new type of warrant, called a warrant to accept, that was granted after a survey was conducted. Under the new system, the applicant was to appear in person at the Land Office in Philadelphia where his name, the date of application, and the description of the land were entered in a special application book. To curb speculation, each applicant was limited to a maximum of 300 acres.

The Secretary of the Land Office sent copies of applications to the surveyor general who registered the receipt of the copies in his application book and these copies accompanied the orders to survey sent to the deputy surveyors. The survey was to be completed in six months and a drawing showing courses, distances, and adjoining owners returned to the surveyor general. The applicant had another six months to produce a certified statement of his settlement date and the nature of his improvement and to pay the receiver general for the land. After payment was made, a warrant was sent to the surveyor general telling him to accept the survey and to send a return of survey to the Secretary's office where the secretary made out a patent from the return of survey.

To avoid overloading the Land Office, the new application system was first implemented for settled unwarranted land on the eastern side of the Susquehanna River and was extended to the lands on the western side of the river in 1766. The information contained in the East Side Applications has been published and indexed internally in Pennsylvania Land Applications, Volume 1: East Side Applications, 1765-1769 by Kenneth D. McCrea (Pennsylvania Chapter, Palatines in America: Strasburg, PA, 2002). The West Side Applications are indexed in the finding aid located on the top of the Land Office microfilm cabinets.

In 1768 a New Purchase of land from the Indians opened a vast new region to settlement. Part of a broader agreement negotiated with the Iroquois at Fort Stanwix, the New Purchase opened western land that was better situated for settlers to compete for the Indian trade in the Illinois Territory. The New Purchase also encouraged Pennsylvanians to settle along the upper Susquehanna in order to prevent Connecticut settlers of the Susquehanna Company from moving further west into territory claimed by Pennsylvania. Originally recorded in New York in 1781, a copy of the New Purchase Treaty was entered in the Rolls Office in Philadelphia (Deed Book D-3, page 23). Another copy was also entered in Lancaster County Deed Book U, page 68 because one of the provisions of the purchase conveyed Conestoga Indian land located in Lancaster County to the proprietors. The information contained in the New Purchase applications has been published and indexed internally in Pennsylvania Land Applications, Volume 2: New Purchase Applications, 1769-1773 by Kenneth D. McCrea (Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, 2003).

The General Assembly used the Purchase of 1784, or Last Purchase, as an opportunity to implement new land laws and procedures. Land located west of the Allegheny River and Conewango Creek was set aside for Depreciation and Donation lands while land east of these rivers was opened to settlement as soon as preemption applications by squatters already living in the area between Lycoming Creek and Pine Creek were settled. Depreciation Land was sold to compensate veterans of the Revolutionary War who had received pay in depreciated currency and Donation Land was provided to officers and veterans of the Pennsylvania Line who served for the duration of the war. After the preemption claims were settled the initial sale of land in the eastern portion of the Last Purchase took place through the Northumberland Lottery.

From 1784-1794 an application for improved land was usually called an "entry" and was certified by two justices of the peace for the county. Between 1794 and 1817 entries were the only type of application accepted as the Land Office required settlement, improvement, and cultivation before granting land. After 1817, when most of the state's lands had been transferred to private ownership, the Land Office again accepted applications for unimproved land. Most applications have not been indexed but can be located by searching backward from the date of the warrant.