Note 137 — Chapter XIII

Extended investigation establishes beyond question that Judge Henderson was proceeding in strict accordance with law in seeking to acquire title by purchase from the Cherokees instead of applying to the royal government for a grant. When Virginia's sea-to-sea charter was abrogated in 1624, Virginia became a royal province and the settlement of boundaries a royal prerogative. Of the three presumed Indian claimants to the trans-Alleghany region, viz., the Iroquois, Shawanoes, and Cherokees, the Iroquois by defeating the Shawanoes and their confederates in the Ohio Valley at the battle of Sandy Island in 1672 acquired title, as understood by the Indians, to this region. By the treaties of Lancaster (1744), Loggstown (1752), and Fort Stanwix (1768), the claims of the Shawanoes and the Iroquois to the trans-Alleghany territory were ceded to the crown. While the Shawanoes and the Cherokees acquiesced in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, the crown fully acknowledged the claim of the Cherokees to the trans-Alleghany region; and by the treaties of Hard Labor (1768) and Lochaber (1770) confirmed them in possession of this region to the west of the boundary line (See Chapter XII). The sovereignty of England extended over this territory, the right of eminent domain being vested in the crown. Henderson was legally justified in disregarding the royal proclamation of 1763 which was largely in the nature of a temporary expedient, and in purchasing the title to the trans-Alleghany region from the Cherokees in 1775. The right of eminent domain over the trans-Alleghany region still vested in the crown after the treaty of Sycamore Shoals.