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his work along the Pearl River in 1768, there was only one known grant of land, the one belonging to Jean Claude Favre of Mobile'".
The British land grants along the Pearl River were very large.lv Among the persons granted lands along the Pearl River were Peter Chesterv, Captain General and Governor in Chief at Pensacola who was granted 1000 acres in 1776, and George Gauld who was granted a large tract of land including what eventually became the town of Gainesville.
On May 24, 1776, when Gauld submitted his claim for the Gainesville area to governor Chester and his council, he tendered a document stating:
?that your petitioner having resided chiefly in this province since its first establishment and being desirous of making a settlement on the east branch of the Pearl River ...requests that two thousand acres of land may be granted him. Your petitioner begs leave humbly to mention not only his service for the good of the province, as surveyor of the harbours <sic> and seacoasts, but likewise several other extra services for which he never had or required any consideration, though executed at considerable expense and trouble to himself. And as your petitioner has formerly made application for very little land in the province, he therefore humbly hopes that your Excellency will grant his request."
Gauld?s land grant in Hancock County consisted of 2,000 acres ?on the Northeast side of the East Branch of the Pearl River about seven leagues above the Mouth?? (Ware and Rea 1982).The land was surveyed on November 7, 1776, by Elias Durnford and granted by Governor Chester on December 12 of the same year (Lowrie and Franklin 1834).
Figure (1) Gauld plat over Gainesville.(T)
John Payne, Gauld?s assistant and pilot during his surveying, also secured a 2000-acre grant on the Pearl River at this time. Payne?s claim was half a mile below the Gauld claim and a quarter of a mile from the ?Le Favres Plantation.? Figure 2: Payne claim location. (?)
On June 20, 1776, John Payne was removed from Gauld?s survey vessel to serve as the pilot of the H.M.S. Diligence, and took over the West Florida in May of 1779 (Ware and Rea 1982: 173,185). Payne became one of the first soldiers killed during the onset of hostilities that led to the conquest of British West Florida by the Spaniards, led by Bernardo Galvez, governor of
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