Auction Name: 2026 February 26 Historical Manuscripts & Texana Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 47051

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6328*47051

Archive of 18th and 19th-Century Georgia Land Ownership Documents. A wide-ranging archive of approximately 85 documents relating to the survey, purchase, transfer, and administration of land in Georgia, circa 1767 to 1853. Spanning nearly a century, the archive brings together land surveys, government records, correspondence, and petitions tied directly to the individuals who shaped Georgia's territorial growth, including numerous prominent Georgia figures. Highlights of the archive include:

Land Surveys with Hand-Drawn Maps (5). Five manuscript land surveys executed by John Donelson, each dated December 22, 1785, delineating 1,000-acre tracts in Georgia. Each survey identifies natural landmarks and adjacent landholders and is accompanied by a hand-drawn map. The surveys are certified by Zachariah Cox, later a central figure in the infamous Yazoo Land Scandal of the late 1780s.

Isaac Briggs Letter Signed. One page of a bifolium, 12 1/4 x 8 inches, Augusta; January 31, 1788. A letter from Isaac Briggs, engineer and early steam-power innovator, to Georgia Governor George Handley, transmitting legislative resolutions in accordance with the proceedings of a recent convention. Signed "I: Briggs." Briggs would later be appointed United States Surveyor of Lands south of the State of Tennessee by President Thomas Jefferson. Letter is completely separated at multiple folds.

Document Appointing Daniel Sturges Surveyor General of Georgia. One page, 12 1/2 x 8 inches, Louisville [Georgia]; January 26, 1797. A manuscript extract from the minutes of the Georgia House of Representatives recording the appointment of Daniel Sturges as Surveyor General. Sturges held the office for twenty-six years and produced numerous important surveys and maps, including the first published map of Georgia's territory.

N. Dunham Letter Signed Regarding a Treaty with the Creek. One page, 8 x 10 inches, "War Department," Washington; April 20, 1806. Writing to the Governor of Georgia, John Milledge, Dunham discusses a recent treaty made with the Creek and urges the governor to ensure their safety from frontier settlers. In part: "Permit me, Sir, to observe that, no circumstance will more contribute to future purchases from the Creeks, than a harmonious and friendly intercourse between your frontier settlers and the Indians...I have no doubt but you will take every reasonable measure, for restraining the frontier people from doing any improper acts to the Indians..."

Petition on Behalf of Revolutionary War Soldier Isaac Brown. One page, 7 3/4 x 10 inches, Oxford, Alabama; March 12, 1853. Henry H. Sutton pens a petition to Governor Howell Cobb of Georgia on behalf of Isaac Brown, a veteran of the Revolutionary War. In part: "I hand you the Petition Declaration &c of Old Isaac Brown...He is an old Revolutionary & on that account is entitled to respect if not on any other...Please...have done whatever you can for the poor old fellow & the few of Georgias Citizens be them where they may who have done as important service as he has." Signed, "Henry H. Sutton." Docketed on the verso.

Condition: Generally good. Expected folds and toning commensurate with age throughout. Some documents quite worn, with occasional separations, loss, staining, or brittleness, sometimes affecting legibility.

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