PA State Archives Hours, Directions, & Fees Research Topics Online Catalog Land Records

 

 

 


Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Pennsylvania State Archives


RG-17
Records of the Land Office
NEW PURCHASE REGISTER, 1768. {series #17.43}

*Images of Each Register Page*


Below are links to the indexes and interfaces for the scanned pages of the New Purchase Register, which is a typed register of applications for Pennsylvania land in the area known as the "New Purchase." Information in the register includes the date of application, application number, name of applicant, acreage, description of location, names of adjoining land owners, the county and township of location, as well as the volume, book, and page where recorded.

The New Purchase tracts lie inside the present-day counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Washington, Greene, Fayette, Westmoreland, Indiana, Cambria, Somerset, Clearfield, Centre, Union, Lycoming, Northumberland, Montour, Columbia, Luzerne, Sullivan, Bradford, Wyoming, Susquehanna, Lackawanna, and Wayne Counties. For a depiction of the actual boundaries of the New Purchase see the Genealogical Map of the Counties that appears in Donna Bingham Munger's book Pennsylvania Land Records, A History and Guide for Research (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1991).

A separate section of this register contain entries identifying officers who served in the 1st and 2nd battalions under Colonel Bouquet during Pontiac's Rebellion in 1764. They were rewarded for their service by a grant of 24,000 acres located along the waters of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and then divided amongst themselves. These grants were authorized on February 3, 1769, and laid out in three locations. The Susquehanna River Tract lies entirely in present day Northumberland County and extends along the east shore of the West Branch of the river from the northern portion of Point Township through most of the length of Delaware Township. The Buffalo Valley Tract lies entirely within Union County. The Bald Eagle Tract lies along the Bald Eagle Creek in portions of present-day Centre and Clinton Counties. Connected drafts of these three "Officer's Tracts" are depicted in Kenneth D. McCrea, Pennsylvania Land Applications, Volume 2: New Purchase Applications, 1769-1773 (Philadelphia, Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, 2003), pp. xxiv-xxvii.

The New Purchase Register has three sections, links to which appear below:

a NAME INDEX of New Purchase Register listings
a NUMERIC LISTING of New Purchase Register applications
a NAME INDEX AND NUMERIC LISTING FOR OFFICER'S TRACTS granted in the New Purchase

Full information for each application is given only in the numeric listing of applications. If the application number is not known, consult the name index first. The name index is arranged alphabetically by the surname of the applicant. More specifically, entries are grouped by the first letter of a person's surname within county and township, and thereunder arranged by application number.

Steps for Using the scanned New Purchase Register pages:
  1. If you know the New Purchase listing number, you can work directly with the Numeric Listing.
  2. If you only know the applicant's name, begin with the Name Index.
  3. Once you've clicked on the Numeric or Name link, follow the directions at the top of the interface page that comes up. Links to the scans themselves will be found in the table below the instructions.
  4. Please note: The scanned page images are in Adobe pdf format and require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to be viewed and printed. The software is available for download free of charge from Adobe's website.
  5. Trouble? Use this email link to contact an archivist.

PA State Archives Hours, Directions, & Fees Research Topics Online Catalog Land Records