West Florida land grant document highlights British colonial era in the Pensacola region

THIS JUST IN : Here is a land grant document for a thousand acres executed in 1772 in West Florida for one Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Munster in partial payment for service in His Majesty’s army keeping the colony safe for monarchy. The document specifically instructs the king’s surveyor general, Charles Durnford, to make sure he assign land to Colonel Munster that was vacant and hadn’t been given to anyone else. The last thing the monarch (who was King George III at the time) needed was his army officers squabbling over land.

King George had his hands full with the uppity colonists in other American colonies thinking they’d be better off going it alone. The following year, some of them dumped tea in Boston Harbor to protest the King’s unreasonable taxes. When the American Revolution came, East and West Florida remained loyal to the crown. In the end, though, the British only stayed in Florida 20 years. In 1781, Spain captured Pensacola, and by 1783, the entire Florida territory was ceded back to Spain.

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