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Author: eyre_jamie
Surnames: Cecil
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.cecil/488.1.1.2.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
That's pretty interesting. Lord Cecil Calvert, son of George Calvert 1st Lord
Baltimore, was given a royal land grant in 1632 by Queen Henrietta Maria, which is now the
state of Maryland. I found from research that descendants of George Calvert controlled
the Maryland Colony until the American Revolution started, and Lord Baltimore would have
had the power to give land grants within the colony of Maryland to new aristocratic
colonists. British records are pretty good and go back a long way if you can actually get
a look at them. There may be land grants records that can be searched at The National
Archives of the United Kingdom, and maybe you will find a lead there. I want to do this
someday, but I will probably have to go to London to do it, and that will have to wait a
few years at least. :)
I'm hypothesizing that my Cecil land grant story may have come about as compensation
for wartime duty during the Seven Years War, but I won't know for sure until I can
search the records in London to see if any Cecil's were fighting in America at the
time or given a land grant as a result. My great-uncle specifically said the land grant
was for land in Cresaptown, which is in western Maryland. The Royal Proclamation of 1763
specifies where the British empire stopped and Indian land began after the Seven
Years' War, and Cresaptown would have been just within the British boundary in 1763.
So, it's possible that a land grant was given. There is an article about the Royal
Proclamation of 1763 on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Royal_Proclamation_of_1763
I think the land grant given in your family probably came earlier than mine. Since it was
given by a Lord Calvert, I would say possibly anytime from 1632 up to the 1760's. The
aristocratic control over the colonies ended when the American Revolutionary Era began.
So, at least that may give you a time frame to work with in researching the land grant
story. Try to check the records in London if you can.
Thanks for the reply! Hope my suggestions help you too! :)
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