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

56038

Austin-Williams Colony DS; Texas

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Paper Start Price:1,500.00 USD Estimated At:2,500.00 - 3,500.00 USD
Austin-Williams Colony DS; Texas
<B>Certificate of Admission Into Austin and Williams Colony</B></I> Texas colonization certificate, one page, oblong 8vo, 7.75" x 6", dated San Felipe, 26 de Mayo, 183? (San Felipe is written in ink over the crossed out place of Tenoxtitlan). Signed <I>"Spencer H. Jack Agente"</B></I>. The partially printed form filled out in ink reads in part: <I>"The Citizens Estevan F. Austin and Samuel M. Williams, Empresarios [Businessmen] introducing 800 families into Texas according to the contract memorialized with the Government of the State. We certify that </B></I><B><I>Elbert G. Head</B></I></B></I><I> is one of the Colonists introduced by virtue of aforementioned contract that he is married and his family consists of two will receive the portion of land that the law concedes..." </B></I>Several tape repairs on verso which are bleeding through, a small hole caused by ink burn where the year was entered, else very good, quite rare. There is a similar copy in the Texas General Land Office signed in manuscript, <I>"Spencer H. Jack Agente"</B></I> with the date June 3, 1834, filled in.<BR><B><BR>Spencer Houston Jack </B></I>(1809-1837/38) accompanied his brother William Houston<B> Jack</B></I> and family to Texas in 1830. They located in San Felipe de Austin. He was the first colonist to draw Mexican blood in resistance to Mexican authority. In 1831 while serving on <I>The Nelson</B></I>, under Capt. Samuel Fuller, the vessel violated orders to obtain clearance when sailing from the Brazos. <I>The Nelson</B></I>, sailing in the wake of another ship also in violation, drew fire from the Mexican barracks at the mouth of the Brazos. Capt. Fuller called for his rifle, which Jack, a passenger, seized and fired, wounding one of the soldiers in the thigh. Early in 1834 Samuel M. Williams appointed Jack as his agent for settling families in the "upper colony," which had been granted to Williams and Stephen F. Austin by the legislature of Coahuila and Texas on February 25, 1831. Jack opened a land office at Tenoxtitlan in March 1834. <BR>When the grant was revoked on May 22, 1834 Williams, then in New Orleans, instructed Jack to go to Monclova to reopen the case. Jack and Peter W. Grayson, both lawyers, were also commissioned to go to Mexico City to present memorials from the ayuntamientos of Texas requesting the release of Stephen F. Austin, who was then imprisoned there. They left San Felipe on August 10, 1834, along with Col. Juan N. Almonte, aide to President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who was returning from an inspection tour of Texas. Jack's efforts at Monclova proved fruitless. The mission to free Austin also failed, though they did bring about his release on bail on Christmas Day, 1834. By the end of December, Jack had returned to San Felipe. During the final days of the 1835 legislative session, Governor Agustin Viesca restored the upper colony to Williams, who again designated Jack as his agent for receiving applications for land. <I>From the collection of Darrel Brown.</B></I><BR><BR><B>Reference: </B></I>Eberstadt 162:39: "This document represents one of the four essential steps used in the colonization process, being the empresario's certificate, stating that the immigrant had been admitted as a member of Austin's Colony." Streeter 9: "Among the 1829 and early 1830 products of the San Felipe press are printed forms for some of the steps in the process of making grants of land to immigrants. I do not ordinarily list forms, but as these grants were the foundation of the colonization of Texas, it seems suitable that the four essential printed forms used in the colonization process should be entered or noted."<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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