{"product_id":"old-three-hundred-signed-colonial-texas-land-grant-by-stephen-f-austin-baron-de-bastrop-and-samuel-may-williams-1824","title":"Framed [Old Three Hundred] Signed Colonial Texas Land Grant: By Stephen F. Austin, Baron de Bastrop and Samuel May Williams, 1824","description":"\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTitle:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e Estevan F. Austin and Baron de Bastrop Signed Land Grant\u003cem\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor: \u003c\/strong\u003eStephen F. Austin, Baron de Bastrop and Samuel May Williams \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDate:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 1824\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e See description\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eInches:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 16 1\/4 x 13 1\/4 [Four integral pages]\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCentimeters:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 41.27 x 33.65 [Four integral pages]\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eProduct ID:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 308757\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eA Foundational 1824 Austin Colony Land Grant [Old Three Hundred]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThis exceptionally early and historically resonant manuscript land title of Stephen F. Austin’s First Colony, issued to James “Jack” Cummins in 1824—during the formative months in which Mexican Texas began to acquire the Anglo-American settler population later remembered as the Old Three Hundred. Its importance rests not merely in its age, but in the convergence of its named grantee, unusual acreage, three foundational signatures, and its direct association with the earliest organized civil administration of Austin’s Colony.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn Old Three Hundred title\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eJames Cummins—often styled James “Jack” Cummins in modern historical accounts—was one of the recognized settlers of Austin’s original colony. He received title on July 7, 1824, making this one of the notably early grants completed shortly after Commissioner Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop, arrived at San Felipe de Austin to begin the formal issuance of titles. Cummins’s title predates the great bulk of surviving 1824 Austin Colony grants and falls within the opening days of Bastrop’s title-issuing work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe term “Old Three Hundred” has become the conventional designation for the families admitted to Austin’s first colonization contract in Mexican Texas. Although Austin had authorization to settle 300 families, the actual historical record is more complicated: recognized grants were issued in a variety of configurations, and some families or individuals received more than one parcel. The designation nevertheless remains indispensable because it identifies the first Anglo-American settler body whose landholding, agricultural development, stock raising, local government, and defense shaped the settled corridor along the Brazos, Colorado, and San Bernard rivers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCummins’s unusually large estate\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThis title conveys an extraordinary allotment: six leagues and one labor of land—six sitios, or leagues, plus one labor. In the customary Mexican-Texas measure, a league equaled approximately 4,428 acres and a labor approximately 177 acres; in aggregate, Cummins’s holding amounted to roughly 26,700 acres. The historical land register identifies the grant as one league in present-day Colorado County, five leagues in present-day Austin County, and one labor in Colorado County.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSuch an allocation immediately distinguishes Cummins from the ordinary settler whose initial claim was based simply on family status and intended occupation. Under the colonization system, a farming household normally received a labor, while a stock-raising household could receive a sitio or league. Cummins’s estate was therefore not a modest homestead concession but a substantial landed domain, appropriate to a prominent early colonist with the means and anticipated role to establish livestock operations, cultivation, improvements, and settlement infrastructure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eContemporary accounts and later Texas historical reference works state that Cummins received a land bonus for his undertaking to establish both a lumber mill and a gristmill in the colony. This practical concession helps explain the great scale of the grant. Mills were among the most consequential improvements in a frontier community: a gristmill transformed local corn and grain into usable foodstuffs, while a sawmill or lumber mill supplied the material basis for houses, stores, fences, public buildings, and agricultural development. Cummins’s grant thus records not only private landownership but a deliberate effort to build the productive infrastructure of the colony.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe three historic signatures\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe document is especially compelling because it bears the signatures of three individuals central to the administrative machinery of Austin’s Colony:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eStephen F. Austin\u003cspan style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\"\u003e (1793-1836) \u003c\/span\u003eEmpresario and political founder of the first Anglo-American colony in Mexican Texas. Austin selected and managed settlers, negotiated with Mexican authorities, and administered the colony’s early development.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eBaron de Bastrop\u003cspan style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\"\u003e (1759-1827)  \u003c\/span\u003eFelipe Enrique Neri, the Mexican-appointed first commissioner of Austin’s Colony. As commissioner, Bastrop possessed the governmental authority to perform the formal legal act of distributing and confirming colonial lands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSamuel May Williams\u003cspan style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\"\u003e (1795-1858) \u003c\/span\u003eAustin’s secretary, title clerk, agent, and later business partner. Williams performed a vast share of the colony’s administrative work and was deeply involved in recording, preparing, and processing its land-title system.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eBastrop’s presence is particularly important. Governor Luciano García appointed him commissioner in July 1823, but the actual issuance of Austin Colony titles commenced at San Felipe in July 1824. During that summer, he issued about 272 titles before being called away in August, leaving further title work to be completed later under other officials. A July 7 Cummins title belongs to the very first phase of that historic campaign of legal land distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSamuel May Williams’s signature adds another level of administrative and historical interest. Austin employed Williams beginning in 1823; he served as secretary, clerk, translator, agent, and title officer, undertaking what the Texas General Land Office characterizes as a prodigious share of work in the colony’s administration. In a document of this kind, his signature is a tangible link to the colony’s day-to-day legal and bureaucratic operation at San Felipe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePhysical and documentary character\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe title is written in Spanish—the formal language of Mexican governmental authority in Texas at the time—and preserves the elaborate legal, administrative, and evidentiary character expected of an original colonial conveyance. Its extended manuscript text, clerical structure, endorsements, folded format, and large signatures all reflect its original purpose as an operative title deed rather than a later abstract, translation, or commemorative copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe present multi-sheet form is especially evocative of its survival as a working family archive: a document prepared for folding and storage, carried or retained by the grantee and his heirs, and marked with docketing or later notation on its exterior surfaces. The softened ink, age-toned paper, fold separations, peripheral losses, and handling evidence should be understood as part of the object’s two-century material history. In the market for early Texas documents, collectors frequently value this visual and physical authenticity, particularly when the condition remains legible and the document retains its original signatures and integral leaves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHistorical significance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eIn collecting terms, this is not simply an early Texas autograph document. It is a foundational Mexican Texas land title, issued within the Old Three Hundred, conveying a vast and exceptional tract to a significant colonist, and signed by Austin, Bastrop, and Williams—the empresario, the government commissioner, and the colony’s indispensable administrative officer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eIt unites several collecting fields that are usually pursued separately:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eStephen F. Austin and the origins of Anglo-American Texas.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eMexican Texas civil administration and Spanish-language manuscript culture.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eOld Three Hundred settlement and land colonization.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eTexas land law, surveying, and large ranching estates.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe economic development of Austin’s Colony through Cummins’s mill undertaking.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eAutographs of Austin, Baron de Bastrop, and Samuel May Williams on a single contemporary legal instrument.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe title also has a highly specific geographic legacy. Cummins’s land lay across areas now associated with Austin and Colorado counties, placing it in the rich river-country landscape that formed one of the principal cores of early colonial settlement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRarity\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSurviving Old Three Hundred land titles are rare, original 1824 examples with Austin and Bastrop are very rare, and a Cummins grant of this scale with Austin, Bastrop, and Williams is an unusually strong and marketable example within the category.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eExquisitely presented by The Antiquarium framing team in hand-made peruvian leather frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe document is substantially toned overall, with peripheral chipping and losses consistent with age and prolonged handling. Its original horizontal folds are fragile and separated, with the exception of the uppermost fold, which remains largely intact. The signatures of Stephen F. Austin and Baron de Bastrop extend across one of these fold lines; each shows only minor interruption at the fold and remains readily legible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe manuscript text has sustained localized deterioration along the folds, principally from moisture-related fading. Paper loss is evident where the horizontal and vertical folds intersect, and several small perforations—apparently attributable to iron-gall ink corrosion—occur throughout the sheet. Notwithstanding these condition issues and isolated areas of fading, the surviving text is notably strong, dark, and highly legible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReferences\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eOriginal James Cummins Mexican Texas land title, 1824; Texas General Land Office, \u003ci\u003eAustin’s Colony Records\u003c\/i\u003e (SC.AC \/ AR.87.AU)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eEugene C. Barker, ed., \u003ci\u003eThe Austin Papers\u003c\/i\u003e, 3 vols. (Washington: GPO, 1924–1928)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eAnonymous, “Cummins, James,” \u003ci\u003eHandbook of Texas Online\u003c\/i\u003e; Christopher Long, “Old Three Hundred,” \u003ci\u003eHandbook of Texas Online\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Antiquarium Antique Maps | Quality Custom Picture Framing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48934216958091,"sku":"308757","price":49995.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0389\/6416\/6795\/files\/Austin_Land_Grant.png?v=1787089963","url":"https:\/\/theantiquarium.com\/products\/old-three-hundred-signed-colonial-texas-land-grant-by-stephen-f-austin-baron-de-bastrop-and-samuel-may-williams-1824","provider":"The Antiquarium Antique Maps | Quality Custom Picture Framing","version":"1.0","type":"link"}