© Sherrie T. Cork
Please cite as:
Cork, Sherrie T. “James Stallings: Revolutionary War Veteran” Web blog post. Descendants of Rebellion. 21 August 2016.
In my last post about Stallings Island, I promised to tell you more about James Stallings and his neighbors. Well, I got sidetracked researching Revolutionary War bounty land grants, and I sure learned a lot in the process of putting this research together! A perfect example of how learning about and understanding historical context will help you connect records to people. In fact, this is entirely a digression into Georgia’s bounty land grant process and how I figured out who James Stallings the grantee was.
Because I started by researching land ownership, I had tracked down all of the headright and bounty land documents for James Stallings viewable on FamilySearch.org. The images in this collection were filmed from the collection at the Georgia State Archives and contain certificates, warrants, petitions and declarations associated with both Revolutionary War bounty land and land obtained on purchase or headrights from 1783-1909. Documents pertaining to a particular name are in one folder with no distinction made between people with the same name. In other words, the compilers didn’t separate one John Smith from another John Smith. Therefore, I couldn’t have concluded that there was only one James Stallings who received Revolutionary War bounty land in Georgia simply because there was one folder for James Stallings. Also, the folders in this collection may not contain the grants and plats associated with the warrants, so it is important to locate the grants and plats to confirm that land was actually granted, meaning ownership was transferred to the person for whom the warrant was issued. That was the case with the James Stallings folder. I enlisted the help of Don Evans, a researcher in Georgia, who located all of the state land grants and associated plats for James Stallings at the Georgia Archives.
I then had records for Lieutenant James, Captain James, Colonel James and citizen James. Was this just one guy? Or were there four men in Georgia named James Stallings? Interestingly, and very fortunately, there are several original documents surviving that were signed by James Stallings that also helped me determine just how many Jameses there were who received land grants in Georgia.
But first, let’s look at how the land grant process worked. There have been numerous books and articles published about the post-war land grants in Georgia. The most significant obstacle to this research was finding the most accurate information. In 1954, Alex M. Hitz published an article in the Georgia Historical Quarterly detailing Georgia’s land grant process following the Revolution.[1] Mr. Hitz begins his article with this sentence: “Very little that is authentic has been written about the land grants given by the State of Georgia immediately following the close of the American Revolution, and many erroneous ideas have developed during the years since.”[2]
Lloyd L. Bockstruck published his work Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants in 1998, which also explains the Georgia bounty land grant process.[3] Both authors point out issues with the process, such as the Yazoo Land Fraud, the issuance of duplicative warrants and erroneous notations made on documents years later. Hitz also points out that Lucian Lamar Knight’s Georgia’s Roster of the Revolution[4] identifies as a soldier every man for whom land was surveyed for certain acreage amounts, which is incorrect because some land was granted to assignees who were not soldiers.
Hitz and Bockstruck both include a chart showing the acreage granted per class, but they don’t agree. Bockstruck’s work attempts to provide a corrected roster of war bounty land grantees, but there appear to mistakes in this work as well. Bockstruck lists two entries for James Stallings in Georgia as follows:
“Stallings, James. Ga. Lieutenant, 21 Apr. 1784. 402 ½ acres.
Stallings, James. Ga. Refugee. 24 Dec. 1783. 250 acres.”[5]
Given all of this conflicting information, I’ll try my best to summarize the important points of Georgia’s process.
According to Bockstruck, the offering of land in exchange for military service induced men to serve and to win. Lands were not awarded until the war was won. The land granted was on the frontier, which installed military veterans on land still occupied by hostile peoples. Veterans would join local militias after the war. In Georgia, which was still sparsely populated, the land grants would induce men from other states to join Georgia’s forces. Georgia granted land in specified acreage assigned to class and rank, including refugees from the state and citizens.
There was a five-step process to obtaining a grant of land in Georgia:
Obtained certificate from commanding officer and submitted to Executive Council
- Governor issued numbered certificate
- Executive Council issued numbered warrant with instructions to surveyor
- Surveyor surveyed land and made plat
- Secretary of State issued grant after filing fees were paid[6]
There are some elements of the process that are very important to point out. First, a person could qualify for a grant under more than one class. Second, vouchers were presented to the Executive Council for Franklin and Washington County, but the land could be granted in any of the other eight Georgia counties that existed at the time (Wilkes, Burke, Richmond, Effingham, Chatham, Glynn, Camden, Liberty). Third, only the governor’s numbered certificate indicated the status of the recipient. Fourth, 15% was added to the acreage on the warrants if taxes were waived. So a warrant might issue for 250 acres, but the grant would be for 287.5 acres.[7]
Now let’s have a look at the documents in the James Stallings folder on FamilySearch. In the following table, the documents in the FamilySearch collection have a number in the # column. The number does not indicate the order in which they are found in the folder. I have grouped documents together that pertain to each warrant and arranged each set in chronological order. The documents in this table without a number in the # column are the plats and grants that were not in the FamilySearch folder.
| # | Date | Description | County |
| 1. | 2/2/1784 | Certificate of Col. Elijah Clarke[8] | Wilkes |
| 2. | 3/25/1784 | Certificate No. 1068 for 250 acres per certificate of Col. Elijah Clarke; to James Stallings “as a citizen”; “doubtful” written on the top left corner[9] | |
| 3. | 12/24/1783 | Governor’s Certificate No. 6 for 250 acres certified by Col. James Jackson; “dismissed(?) as belonging to Col. Jackson’s Legion”[10] | |
| 4. | 5/17/1784 | Warrant for 402 1/2 acres; note: “altered to 690 acres on a reconsideration of Col. Jackson’s certificate”[11] | Washington |
| 5. | 2/21/1784 | Commanding officer’s certificate, certifying service as refugee; “as a lieutenant and continued as such in my regiment until our return to this state”[12] | |
| 6. | 2/24/1784 | Governor’s Certificate No. 309 to “Lieutenant James Stallings as a refugee.” per certificate of William Candler. 250 acres is changed on this certificate to be 350 and a parenthetical says “say three hundred & fifty acres”[13] | |
| 7. | 4/6/1784 | Petition for Warrant of 690 acres; cover sheet says granted as lieutenant in refugeeship 350 acres + 15%, 21st April 1784[14] | Washington |
| 8. | 4/27/1784 | Declaration by James that he owned 16 slaves and never received a grant of land before or since the Revolution, except by purchase.[15] | Richmond |
| 9. | 5/17/1784 | Warrant for 690 acres[16] | Washington |
| 6/6/1784 | Plat for 690 acres on Oconee River[17] | Washington | |
| 9/30/1784 | Grant for 690 acres, bounded by Oconee River, Jeremiah Buggs and vacant land[18] | Washington | |
| 10. | 5/17/1784 | Warrant “on purchase” for 1000 acres[19] | Washington |
| 6/7/1784 | Surveyor Plat for 1,000 acres on the Oconee River, bounded by James’ other land and vacant land[20] | Washington | |
| 9/30/1784 | Grant for 1000 acres, bounded by Oconee River, James’ other land and vacant land[21] | Washington | |
| Warrant missing | |||
| 2/20/1785 | Plat showing Capt. James Stallings’ 1,000 acres bounded by Maj. Richard Call, James’ land on the Savannah River at the mouth of Red’s Creek, Pace’s land and others[22] | Richmond | |
| 2/22/1786 | Grant for 1000 acres, bounded by Call’s land, Wells’s land, Coopers and Stallings’ land and Pace’s land[23] | Richmond | |
| 11. | 9/6/1784 | Warrant for 150 acres, in lieu of part of 200 acres warrant issued to Isaac Rasor 4/5/1784; to be laid out joining his own lands [cover sheet says “Cert. Issued”][24] |
Richmond |
| 10/10/1784 | Plat by William Sims for 150 acres, shows Kiokee Creek running through South edge of property (refers to warrant of Charles Crawford of 9/6/1784)[25] | Richmond | |
| 10/13/1784 | Plat by William Sims showing 23 acres on the mainland and the balance of 50 acres split between seven small islands (shown in my last blog)(refers to warrant of Charles Crawford of 9/6/1784)[26] | Richmond | |
| 1/15/1785 | Grant for 150 acres bounded by James’ other land and vacant land[27] | Richmond | |
| 2/15/1785 | Grant for 50 acres and seven small islands, bounded by Savannah River, Downs’ land, Dodson’s land and Joseph Leslie’s land[28] | Richmond | |
| 12. | 7/3/1786 | Warrant for 5000 acres, in lieu of old warrant in Wilkes Co. dated 8/4/1786; Neville’s Creek and Ogeechie River[29] | Effingham |
| 12/9/1786 | Surveyor Plat for 5,000 acres bounded by Widow Bowen, Elijah Bowen, Jonathan Cochran, Luke Pridgen, Ann Mary Lanier, Lewis Lanier and vacant land[30] | Effingham (later Screven) | |
| 4/26/1787 | Grant for 5000 acres, bounded by Widow Bowen, Elijah Bowen, Jonathan Cochran, Luke Pridgen, Ann Mary Lanier, Lewis Lanier and vacant land[31] | Effingham (later Screven) | |
| 13. | 4/30/1799 | Comptroller General’s Office, Louisville; certificate for “Col. James Stallings” audit of claim for check in 1795 for 150 pounds[32] | No county |
The first set of documents with blue text all seem to pertain to what is ultimately one grant for 690 acres on the Oconee River in Washington County. 690 acres is the total of 402.5 (350 + 15%) and 287.5 (250 + 15%). According to Hitz, 690 acres is also the amount that captains in the Georgia Line received. However, there is no governor’s certificate that identifies James’ status as a captain, and he was a member of the militia, not the Georgia Line (U.S. Continental Army). Notice certificate number 6 is for 250 acres (287.5 when 15% is added) and states “dismissed as to Jackson’s legion.” Document number 4 is a warrant for 402.5 acres (350 + 15%) that states the total of 690 acres would be granted “in reconsideration of Colonel Jackson’s certificate.”
The Georgia Historical Society has an original letter with James’ signature in their collection. I obtained a copy. In the letter Captain James Stallings wrote from Savannah to Lieut. Colonel James Jackson (who later became governor).[33] The letter is dated 24 July 1782. In this letter, Captain Stallings notifies his commander that he is returning home. This is his signature on that letter, followed by “Capt. GLD” (Captain of Georgia Light Dragoons.)
Document number 7 in the table above is a petition whereby James petitions for a warrant for 690 acres. The petition states “…your petitioner is entitled to six hundred & ninety acres of land for his services pursuant to the certificates hereunto annexed and that your petitioner is desirous of making up the said lands in the county of Washington.”[34] Note ‘certificates’ is plural. The petition is dated 6 April 1784. The note on the back of the petition states “granted as Lieut. in Refugeeship 350 +15, 21st April 1784.” Interestingly, 350 acres does not appear on either Hitz’s or Bockstruck’s tables of bounty award amounts according to rank or class.
This is the signature on the original petition:
On 27 April 1784, James Stallings signed a declaration (document number 8) in Richmond County, stating that he was a citizen of Georgia and had 16 slaves. This is the signature on the declaration:
Therefore, I believe that James’ 690 acres was comprised of 287.5 acres granted to him as a citizen per certificate number 6 certified by Col. James Jackson, and 402.5 acres granted to him as a refugee lieutenant. Because James received a certificate as a refugee, we know that James was a resident of Georgia when he joined the fighting. He was not living in another state before the war.
After the war, in 1785, James was commissioned as colonel in the Richmond militia.[35] There are letters signed by James available at the Georgia Archives, wherein James requests ammunition for the Richmond militia.[36]
Here is the signature on one of these letters dated 21 June 1786. James signs as “Col. BRC” (1st Battalion of Richmond County Militia).
All of the signatures certainly appear to belong to the same James Stallings, so it would seem that he applied for bounty land grants under the various classes for which he thought he would qualify (citizen and refugee lieutenant).
Documents 1 and 2 are certificates by Col. Elijah Clarke. Document 1 indicates Wilkes County. However, there is no warrant and no grant for land in Wilkes County for James Stallings. The language in the certificate is different that the language in Candler’s certificate and seems to indicate certification of the class of citizens who met the requirement to not “plunder or distress his neighbors.”[37] I believe this certificate likely pertains to the same James Stallings and may have been prepared in contemplation of Col. Clarke’s participation in the Yazoo Land Fraud.[38] Note the document number 12 warrant states that it is in lieu of an old warrant in Wilkes County. Is it possible this 5,000 acre parcel in Screven is the connected to the Wilkes County certificate? The warrant states that the old Wilkes County warrant is dated 4 August 1786. I haven’t found a Wilkes County warrant with the date of 4 August 1786. Also, as of this writing, I haven’t located any direct evidence to connect Colonel James Stallings to the land in Screven. A mystery to solve!
The 1,000 acre parcel granted in Richmond County is likely a headright grant. A head of a family could claim 100 acres plus 50 for each member of the family, including slaves, up to $1,000.[39] James’ declaration states he owned 16 slaves, but he doesn’t claim any other family members. Accordingly, he would be able to claim 900 acres, 100 acres short of the 1,000 grant. Another mystery to solve!
Document 11, and the corresponding grants and plats, is partly the Stallings Island parcel. The total land granted in this transaction was 200 acres, and the warrant was issued to Isaac Rasor 17 May 1784 and was for a total of 287.5 acres (250 +15%). James Stallings signed a petition for this land to be granted to himself. Was this an assignment of 200 acres of Isaac Rasor’s land? The 200 acres that was granted to Stallings was granted in two separate parcels: 50 acres, including 23 acres of islands in the Savannah River; and 100 acres on Kiokee Creek, which is about 8-10 miles upstream from the islands. This is the signature on the petition:
In conclusion, James Stallings received a total of 690 acres of Revolutionary War bounty land, 200 acres of Isaac Rasor’s bounty land and a grant of 1,000 acres via headrights. More research is needed to determine if the James Stallings who had the 5,000 acres in Screven County is our Colonel James Stallings.
(James Stallings purchased other land as well, but this post analyzed only the land he acquired from state land grants.)
As always, I welcome comments and corrections.
References Cited:
[1] Gary B. Mills, “Georgia Bounty Land Grants,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 38 (December 1954).
[2] Hitz, 1
[3] Bockstruck, Lloyd, Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants, Ancestry.com (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1996), x.
[4] Lucian Lamar Knight, Georgia’s Roster of the Revolution (Atlanta: Index Printing Co., 1920).
[5] Bockstruck, 500
[6] Bockstruck, xii
[7] Bockstruck, x
[8] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-81PP-7P7?i=328&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[9] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-L1PP-7R7?i=320&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[10] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org. (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G1PP-7TR?i=338&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[11] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-81PP-7GZ?i=330&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[12] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-L1PP-7P4?i=334&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[13] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G1PP-7RJ?i=332&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[14] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-81PP-7L1?i=336&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016.), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[15] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G1PP-7TT?i=339&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[16] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G1PP-7T2?i=318&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[17] Georgia State Archives, “Georgia Colonial and Headright Plat Index, 1735-1866,” georgiaarchives.gov (http://vault.georgiaarchives.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/platindex/id/31090/rec/8: accessed 19 July 2016), entry for James Stallings, citing Georgia Colonial and Headright Plat Index, Vol. A, pg 192.
[18] Georgia Surveyor General, Register of Grants, 1784. Book EEE : pg. 145, James Stallings (30 September 1784); Georgia State Archives microfilm, GRG 2 ‐ 2280, Microfilm Drawer 52, Box 20; Georgia State Archives, Morrow.
[19] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-81PP-72B?i=324&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016.), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[20] Georgia Surveyor General Plats, Colonial Headright Book, 1779-1785. Book A : pg. 192, James Stallings (7 June 1784); Georgia State Archives microfilm, GRG 2‐2218, Microfilm Drawer 51, Box 18; Georgia State Archives, Morrow.
[21] Georgia Surveyor General, Register of Grants, 1784. Book EEE : pg. 176, James Stallings (30 September 1784); Georgia State Archives microfilm, GRG 2‐2280, Microfilm Drawer 52, Box 20; Georgia State Archives, Morrow.
[22] Crumpton Plats, “Richmond County, GA Plats,” crumptonplats.com (http://www.crumptonplats.com/ : accessed 6 June 2016), entry for Richard Call, plat number RI0378f.
[23] Georgia Surveyor General, Register of Grants, 1784-1785. Book III : pg. 476, James Stallings (22 February 1786); Georgia State Archives microfilm, GRG 2 ‐ 2283, Microfilm Drawer 52, Box 23, Georgia State Archives, Morrow.
[24] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-L1PP-75F?i=326&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[25] Crumpton Plats, “Richmond County, GA Plats,” crumptonplats.com (http://www.crumptonplats.com/ : accessed 6 June 2016), entry for Richard Call, plat number RI0045f.
[26] Crumpton Plats, “Richmond County, GA Plats,” crumptonplats.com (http://www.crumptonplats.com/ : accessed 6 June 2016), entry for Richard Call, plat number RI0038f.
[27] Georgia Surveyor General, Register of Grants, 1784-1785. Book FFF : pg. 451, James Stallings (15 January 1785); Georgia State Archives microfilm, GRG 2‐2281, Microfilm Drawer 52, Box 21, Georgia State Archives, Morrow.
[28] Georgia Surveyor General, Register of Grants, 1785. Book GGG (P. 1 ‐ 292) : pg. 20, James Stallings (15 February 1785); Georgia State Archives microfilm, GRG 2 ‐ 2281, Microfilm Drawer 52, Box 21, Georgia State Archives, Morrow.
[29] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G1PP-713?i=316&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[30] Georgia Surveyor General Plats, Colonial Headright Book, 1779-1785. Book A : pg. 192, James Stallings (9 December 1786); Georgia State Archives microfilm, GRG 2‐2222, Microfilm Drawer 51, Box 22; Georgia State Archives, Morrow.
[31] Georgia Surveyor General, Register of Grants, 1787. Book NNN : pg. 274, James Stallings (26 April 1787); Georgia State Archives microfilm, GRG 2‐2285, Microfilm Drawer 52, Box 25; Georgia State Archives, Morrow.
[32] “Online Record Collection: Images,” database with images, FamilySearch.org ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G1PP-7YF?i=322&wc=M61W-42S%3A200723401%3Fcc%3D1914217&cc=1914217 : accessed 14 June 2016), James Stallings file, Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, Georgia State Archives.
[33] Capt. James Stallings (Savannah, Georgia) to Colonel James Jackson, letter, 24 July 1782; privately held by Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, Georgia, 2016, letter addressed to recipient.
[34] “James Stallings” file, Georgia Headright and Bounty Land Records, digital images, FamilySearch.org.
[35] Judge Folks Huxford, abstractor, Genealogical Material From Legal Notices in Early Georgia Newspapers (Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press, Inc., 1989), 260.
[36] File II, Reference Services, RG 4-2-46, Georgia Archives
[37] Hitz, 5
[38] Our Georgia History (http://www.ourgeorgiahistory.com/ogh/Georgia_headright_grants : accessed 16 August 2016), “Georgia headright grants.:
[39] Julia Ford Smith, Slavery and Rice Culture in Low Country Georgia (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1985), 25.