I am very excited to say that I found an important clue relating to John Stewart’s land in Kentucky. Recall from a prior blog post, that John Stewart Jr. left in his will 3,700 acres of land in Kentucky to his son, John Stewart III. I have spent a lot of time speculating how he came to own such a significant amount of land, and have believed that it was somehow related to his relationship with John Floyd, a well known Kentucky surveyor. I now have proof that this was, in fact, the case.
In the above image there are three important grants derived from a surveying expedition by John Floyd to Kentucky in 1779/80. The first two grants are to John Floyd himself for a total of 2000 acres. The third grant, on the bottom line of the image, is to John Stewart for 1000 acres ‘on the Elkhorn Creek on branch of the Kentucky river.”
This record does not account for the full 3,700 acres of Kentucky land in John Stewart Jr.’s will. However, it does strongly indicate an involvement by John Stewart in John Floyd’s surveying expedition of 1779/80, as well as, a likely source for the other 2,700 acres that are as yet unaccounted for. I will continue to dig around in records to search for the remaining acreage. Unfortunately, some of these records may simply be lost to time.
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