Z 1975.000 Hutchins Family Papers

Z 1975.000
HUTCHINS FAMILY PAPERS

Thomas Hutchins, Sr., was born in Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1730. He entered the British army as an ensign and eventually became captain and paymaster of the Sixtieth Royal American Regiment. Hutchins was assistant engineer in the Ohio expedition of General Henry J. Bouquet, and he took part in a campaign against the Florida Indians. He was a land surveyor in British West Florida, including the Natchez District, prior to the American Revolution. Hutchinss loyalty to the American cause prompted his arrest and detainment in London for six weeks in 1779 on a charge of corresponding with Benjamin Franklin who was then in France. He later joined General Nathanael Greene in Charleston, South Carolina, where he received an appointment as geographer general. After the American Revolution, Hutchins served as geographer of the United States, making the first township surveys in the Northwest Territory (Ohio) with the assistance of Winthrop Sargent. He also published A Historical Narrative and Topographical Description of Louisiana and West Florida in 1784. Hutchins died on April 28, 1789.

Anthony Hutchins, brother of Thomas Hutchins, Sr., was born in New Jersey. He became a planter in South Carolina. However, when war with Great Britain became inevitable, the Loyalist Hutchins moved his family, slaves, and livestock to British West Florida, eventually settling near Natchez. Hutchins represented the Natchez District in the West Florida Assembly in 1778. As a Loyalist, he was captured by members of the Willing expedition in 1778 and taken to New Orleans as a hostage to guarantee the neutrality of the district. Upon his return from New Orleans, Hutchins organized the militia to repel Willing, and he participated in a skirmish in which several of Willings men were killed. In return for his services, the governor of British West Florida, Peter Chester, and his council appointed Hutchins a major with the rank of lieutenant colonel in the provisional regiment. He participated in a failed uprising against the Spanish authorities at Pensacola in 1781 and was forced to flee to Savannah and ultimately London, where he remained for several years. He was finally able to return to the Natchez District through the intercession of British merchant William Panton and influential friends in New Orleans. Hutchins was frequently at odds with Commissioner Andrew Ellicott during the latters tenure in Natchez from 1797 to 1798, particularly regarding the validity of British and Spanish land grants. He was often in direct opposition to the Federalist policies of Territorial Governor Winthrop Sargent, but his leadership helped to secure a house of representatives for the territory. Hutchins was later elected to the house of representatives with a majority of votes, but Sargent retaliated by contesting the election. He died at his plantation near Natchez on December 12, 1803.

The five documents in this collection pertain to the land claim of Thomas Hutchins, Jr., and concern his attempts to secure title to 1,000 arpents of land in the Natchez District granted to his father by the Spanish authorities in 1788. The first document is a 1787 memorandum regarding land grants to various Hutchins family members. The second document is an 1800 deposition of Andrew Lopez Armento, secretary of the Spanish governor, accounting for all land titles granted to Hutchins family members from 1788 to 1790. The third document is an 1804 deposition of Armento stating that the 1788 land grant was made only to Thomas Hutchins, Sr., and his heirs, despite the continuing efforts of Anthony Hutchins to have the land grant transferred to his children. The fourth document is an 1811 deposition of James Smith confirming the 1788 land grant. The fifth document is an 1813 deposition arguing that the heirs of Anthony Hutchins are entitled to the land grant because Anthony Hutchins became a Spanish subject and Thomas Hutchins, Sr., never did. Each item is a representative example of the type of documentation required to prove the validity of Spanish land grants.

1. Memorandum. 1787. 0.10 c.f.
2. Depositions. 1800; 1804; 1811; 1813. 0.10 c.f.