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The document is signed “Edm: Randolph” by Edmund Jennings Randolph, then governor of Virginia. Randolph was a central figure in the founding of the United States: he introduced the Virginia Plan at the Constitutional Convention, served on the Committee of Detail, became the nation’s first attorney general under George Washington, and later served as secretary of state.
An endorsement on the reverse appears to be signed “John Harvie, Regr.” by John Harvie, Virginia’s register of the Land Office and a Virginia delegate who signed the Articles of Confederation in 1778. Harvie’s office supervised Virginia’s enormous program of western land grants, including property in what later became Kentucky.
Issued only days before the opening of the Virginia Ratifying Convention, the grant represents an evocative artifact of western expansion during the formative period of the United States. It retains its original paper-covered Commonwealth of Virginia seal.
The document exhibits heavy folds, scattered staining and soiling, edge losses, small fold separations, and fading, particularly to Randolph’s signature. Nevertheless, the principal information remains legible, both historically important signatures are identifiable, and the original state seal survives.
