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

Lot Number: 47297

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6328*47297

Republic of Texas Signed Oath for a Second-Class Headright. One page, 7 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches, Matagorda, "Republic of Texas"; March 11, 183[8]. An oath submitted on behalf of Isaac Norris in Matagorda County by merchants Charles Howard and Hamilton L. Cook, attesting that Norris "arrive[d] in this Republic, Subsequent to the Declaration of Indepe[n]dence, in the month of July in the year Eighteen Hundre[d] and thirty six, and is a single man, and entitled t[o] one third of League of Land, to be Surveyed after the first day of August 1838." Signed, "Chas Howard Pres" and "H. L. Cook / Ast. Comy." Additionally signed by D. C. Cady as witness, "D. C. Cady Clerk." Docketed on the verso.

Howard and Cook were prominent Matagorda merchants involved in local land administration. D. C. Cady had earlier served in the Texas Revolution with Stewart's Company of Matagorda Volunteers, later becoming Secretary of the Board of Proprietors of Matagorda and a captain in the Mounted Texas Rangers during the Mexican War.

Headrights were granted to promote settlement in the new Republic of Texas. The system divided applicants into classes based on when they arrived in Texas and whether they were single or the head of a family. First-class headrights, which conveyed the largest land grants, were reserved for those who had settled in Texas before the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836, with second- through fourth-class headrights offering progressively smaller allotments to later arrivals.

Condition: Somewhat toned, slightly darker at the right. Scattered dampstaining. Rough right edge with several small chips, affecting a few letters.

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