M'Crackin's heirs v. Steele
M'Crackin's heirs v. Steele
Opinion of the Court
M’Crac-kin’s heirs have appealed from a decree of the Woodford circuit court, made to the prejudice of their elder title at law, by supporting the following entry :
“ November 21st, 1786 — John Craig, assignee, enters 1000 acres of land on part of a treasury warrant, No. 19,410, between and adjoining George Moffett, Cyrus M’Crackin, Briscoe, assignee of Stewart, John Craig and Samuel Estill, on Glenn’s Creek.”'
George Moffett’s 1000 acres were surveyed on the 1st July 1773, by virtue of a military warrant, &c. and a grant therefor issue.d on the 11 th July 1780,
Cyrus M’Crackin’s settlement and pre-emption, were surveyed on the 25th of January 1783, on which grants issued on the 10th January in the year 1785..
John Briscoe’s 1000 acres, as assignee of Charles Stewart, were surveyed on the 1st of September 1783, the survey was registered on the 18th of October 1784, but the grant did not issue until the 26th of October 1790.
Samuel Estill’s 400 acres, were surveyed on the 9th of December 1782, for which a grant issued bearing date on the 8th-of February 1785.
The notoriety of these surveys at the date of the entry in question is well established.
Estill’s pre-emption is the claim surveyed and granted as before mentioned. Craig’s entry must be attached to Estill’s certificate of pre-emption of 400 acres, “ on Glenn’s creek, to include John Clarke’s cabin and improvement at a large spring.” John Clarke’s cabin and spring are identified, and the notoriety thereof since the year 1776, is well established. But it does not appear that any survey of this entry of Craig’s 200 acres, had been executed previous to the entry in question.
Glenn’s creek, on which, and its branches, all these entries and surveys lie, was notorious by that name as early as 1776, and ever since.
The relative positions of these claims form an area not entirely circumscribed by their lines, but yet concentrated very closely upon the quantity of land called for in the location. Such indeed are the situations of Mof-fett, M’Crackin, Briscoe, assignee of Stewart, and Estill, with respect to each other, as surveyed, that if the actual demarcations of boundary, rather that the ideal boundaries of the entries of the three latter, are to be understood as alluded to by the location, no subsequent locator, who candidly examined this entry for information, and not for mere cavil, could have hesitated to content himself with saying these are the claims called for, without searching for others lying without the limited neighborhood within which these had brought him. Although by discarding the calls for Briscoe, assignee of Stewart, and for Estill, the entry might be thrown entirely off the ground now occupied by the survey, and yet adjoin Moffett, M’Crackin, a claim represented on the plat as John Craig’s 387 1-2 acres, and indeed a claim represented as Briscoe’s, assignee of Rowe ; yet so to disregard those calls, when they can be complied with by reference to notorious corresponding subjects, would indeed be an arbitrary and unpardonable violence upon the entry.
One objection made to the entry is, that it has not designated which are to be adjoined, the entries or the surveys. As to those claims which were actually carried into grant, no doubt exists but that the claims as
Upon this view of the claims called to be adjoined, the entry in question is deemed valid. The survey should begin on the line of George Moffett’s military survey, where that line would be intersected by the southeastern boundary of Cyrus M’Crackin’s pre-emption survey (that is to say, the line represented on the plat by C. K.) if produced, thence with said produced line, and with the said line of M’Crackin’s pre-emption survey, and with the line of his settlement survey, to the corner common to M’Crackin’s said survey and that of Bris-coe, assignee of Stewart, (as represented on the plat by figure 13,) thence along the line of said Briscoe’s survey until intersected by the line of John Craig’s entry of 200 acres, surveyed on the southwest of Estill’s preemption, as before directed; thence along the said line of said Craig to the corner on said Estill’s pre-emption, as directed to be surveyed ; thence along the common boundary of said Estill’s pre-emption and the appendant entryofsaid Crab to the angle, and along the other common boundary of arose claims, due east to the survey of said Estill, as actually made and carried into grant; thence along the line thereof to the north-west corner, (repre-
But should the quantity require it, the intersection of Moffett’s line at right angles by the line drawn from said Estill’s survey, might be departed from, so as to embrace all the land lying west of a line drawn from said Estill’s southeast corner to said Moffett’s southwest corner (at M.) The land lying east of that line is not considered as being within the expressions of the location, “ between and adjoining,” &c. and therefore not to be included, although there should otherwise be a deficit.
"We consider the 100 acres represented on the plat as surveyed for John Craig on the 4th September 1786, as not affecting the entry in question, as well on account of the position thereof as on account of the want of notoriety, either by entry or survey. The appellees have exhibited objects notorious at the date of the entry in question and corresponding with the calls of the said entry under which they derive title ; the appellants have attempted to destroy the effect thereof by shewing other objects not as well adapted and not notorious : and although the survey directed by this court is in some degree variant from that which was acted on by the circuit court, yet the whole of the land in controversy is embraced by either survey. The appellants rely solely on their elder grant.-Decree affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.