LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 December Signature Texana Auction #661  / 

56032

Stephen F. Austin; Signed Empresario; 1830

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:5,750.00 USD Estimated At:10,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
Stephen F. Austin; Signed Empresario; 1830
<B>Stephen F. Austin Empresario Certificate Signed</B></I> "<I>Estevan F. Austin</B></I>" as Empresario, one page, 7" x 9". Villa de Austin, October 16, 1830. Numbered "<I>490</B></I>." Partly printed in Spanish, completed in manuscript. "<I>I CERTIFY that Anne White is one of the colonist that I have introduced in accordance to my above mentioned contracts; that she arrived to this Colony on the 1st of April of 1830; that she is a widow and the family has 6 people, as stated in the statement that he/she presented to me, signed by him/her; and I attest that he/she has taken the oath before the Mayor as required by the third article of the Law of Colonization of the State. I issue this certification to Anne White, to submit before the Commissioner appointed by the Government for the distribution of lands and issuing titles; as well as a record that she is in my referred contracts. This document will be void if the interested party does not present him/herself before the Commissioner, with this, within one month of publishing in this, a public notice to such effect; similarly, it will be void if it seems that the interested party's statement is false, in any part; or if the interested party goes out of this Colony before receiving his/her property title; or settling in another place; or if he/she does not comply with the payment conditions as described in the public notice published on November 20, 1829 regarding this matter and informed to the interested party upon handing this.</B></I>" Streeter 9. Upon an immigrant's arrival in Texas, there were four legal steps in the process of acquiring land. These steps were: <B>(1)</B></I> filing of a petition to be admitted as a colonist, <B>(2)</B></I> the issuing of an empresario certificate to the colonist to be delivered to the land commissioner, <B>(3)</B></I> delivery to the colonist by the land commissioner of an original and certified copy of a deed, and <B>(4)</B></I> executing a promissory note to the empresario signed by the colonist on receiving his deed. This document was step two. On verso is an Autograph Document Signed "<I>James N. Smith Clk/CC DWC</B></I>" as Clerk of the County Court of DeWitt County, dated February 18, 1850, stating that "<I>personally appeared before me...Lewis Demoss and Jonathan Scott with whom I am well acquainted, and after being duly sworn deposeth and says that they know Estevan F. Austin to be dead, and they further swear that they are acquainted with his hand writing, and that the[y] believe the written signature to be his signed writing.</B></I>" The certificate was filled in by Samuel May Williams, Austin's secretary. The significance of the joint statement of Demoss and Scott, both Old Three Hundred colonists, is that Williams frequently signed Austin's name to these certificates. Anne White was one of only seven women to receive a direct grant in the colony. <B>Diana (Anne) Wilkerson White</B></I> and her husband Thomas began a journey to Texas from North Carolina in 1829 with their four sons and a daughter, ages one to nine. Thomas suddenly died in Alabama, but his widow and children continued the journey to Austin's Colony, arriving in 1830 near Columbia on the Brazos River. Having completed the four requirements of a colonist, including obtaining this certificate, she was deeded a league of land, 4,428 acres, on May 12, 1831 in what is now Montgomery County. Anne later married James Tumlinson, one of Austin's Old Three Hundred. They both died in Gonzales in 1839. Beneath Smith's certification is a six-line notation by H. B. Boston, county clerk of Montgomery County, who has filed the certificate, February 23, 1850. Boston's writing shows through in the lower portion of the front of the certificate. The document is in apparent fine condition. It is matted and framed to 15" x 24.25". A color photocopy of the verso of the document is inserted in a pocket affixed to the verso of the framed display. <I>From the collection of Darrel Brown. </B></I><BR><BR><B>Reference:</B></I> Streeter 9<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Framed - with Glass, Medium (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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