Hackley, Richard S.:

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TITLES, AND LEGAL OPINIONS THEREON, OF LANDS IN EAST FLORIDA, BELONGING TO RICHARD S. HACKLEY. The second edition, revising and adding considerably to the original edition printed in Brooklyn in 1822. Richard S. Hackley was a native of Richmond, who served as first surveyor of East Florida in 1821. His claim was mentioned by Vignoles in his Observations Upon the Floridas, published in 1823. The present work includes the opinions of Robert B. Taylor, M.M. Robinson, W.W. Van Ness, George Caines, and William Sampson. Hackley put forward extensive claims to East Florida lands based on Spanish land grants made by the King of Spain in 1818 to the Duke of Alagon, and then sold to Hackley in 1819. The King later abrogated his grant, and thus raised complicated issues as to who had proper authority and when. He quotes the Adams-Onìs Treaty on the validity of such a grant, and gives the opinions of eight lawyers that his claim is valid.James Kent, the famous New York jurist, agreed with his fellow lawyers in 1830 in his manuscript brief. It is unclear whether he wrote this for his own amusement or whether he, too, was solicited by Hackley, who was clearly still pursuing his claim. However, nothing ever came of this attempt to make off with a good chunk of East Florida. Servies locates only the copy at the State Library of Florida, and OCLC and American Imprints add copies at the Boston Athenaeum, Library Company of Philadelphia, New-York Historical Society, New York Society Library, Am

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