Notes:

Escaped Ft. Mims Massacre; Creek metis (Creek-English, Wind Clan); resident of Tensaw;

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PUBLIC LANDS

23rd Congress No. 1229. 1st Session

Mr. C. Johnson, from the Committee on Private Land Claims, to whom was referred the petition of James Caulfield, reported:

That an act of Congress passed April 20, 1818, allowing Peggy Baily to enter 320 acres of land on the river Alabama, being part of section number seven, township five, range five, including the improvements made by Dixon Bailey, a half Indian, who had been killed at Fort Mimms whilst in the service of the United States, with a proviso in the following words: "Provided, that neither the said Peggy Baily nor her heirs shall have power of alienating said land, or any part thereof," in any manner whatever; and in case of the voluntary abandonment of the possession and occupancy of the said tract of land by the said Peggy Baily, or her heirs hereafter, the said land shall revert to the United States. The petitioner alleges she intermarried with Richard Robinson, and occupied said land until September, 1838, when they removed west of the Mississippi; a deed of conveyance is presented, signed "Peggy Baily, by her agent and attorney in fact, Benjamin Hawkins, " dated September 23, 1838, in Montgomery county, Alabama, conveying the said and to the petitioner for the consideration of one thousand dollars.

A power of attorney is also produced, bearing date March 4, 1838, signed by the said Robinson and Peggy Baily, reciting that they had lately removed to Arkansas, and authorizing said Hawkins to sell their interest in said tract of land. The said petitioner further alleges that he knew nothing of the proviso in the act of Congress at the time of the purchase.

The committee do not perceive the slightest ground, either in law or equity, for a confirmation of the claim of said Peggy Baily to the said James Caulfield. After the voluntary abandonment of said land by the said Peggy Baily, which must have taken place prior to March 4, 1828, if the recitations in the power of the attorney are to be relied on, the land became a part of the public domain, and the said Peggy Baily and her husband had no more claim than any other of the emigrants from that section of the country; and it can hardly be presumed that Benjamin Hawkins, who acted as her agent in the sale of the land, could have been ignorant of the provisions of the act of Congress of 1818, or that he would have committed so gross a fraud upon the present applicant. But if the truth was so, and the said Caulfield uniformed as to the provisions of that act, it furnishes no ground in law or equity for the United States to pay him for the fraud committed by said Hawkins in the sale of said land to him. And if the said Caulfield became the purchaser, as he alleges, and paid his money without having examined the title he was purchasing, it furnishes no good reason why the United Sates should pay him back the losses sustained by such gross neglect.

The Committee report a bill authorizing him to purchase the land at the governmental price, in consideration of the settlement and improvements made by him on said land.



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Communicated to the House of Reprentatives February 28, 1832

Mr. Mardis, from the Committee on Private Land Claims, to whom was referred the petition of James Caulfield, reported:

That on the 20th of April, 1818, an act of the Congress of the United States was approved by the President, granting to Peggy Bailey, sister of Dixon Bailey, a Creek Indian of the half blood, who was slain in the service of the United States at the capture of Fort Mims, the rights to enter with the register of the land office, without payment, three hundred and twnety acres of land, so as to include the settlement and improvement of the said Dixon Bailey in the Alabama territory. That Peggy Bailey continued in the actual or constructive possession of said tract of land until the 23rd of September, 1828, when the said Peggy Bailey, having determined to migrate to the country west of the Mississippi, did, in conjunction with one Richard Robison, who married the said Peggy Bailey, the only other person interested in said tract of land, through their attorney in fact, Benjamin Hawkins, duly authorized, for and in consideration of the sum of one thousand dollars, sell and convey to the petitioner, the said three hundred acres of land. By the laws regulating Indian reservations the petitioner was informed at the proper land office that said land was forfeited to the United States so soon as the said Peggy Bailey abandoned the possession, of which law the petitioner swears he was ignorant at the time of the purchase, and the committee believe such to be fact from the adequate consideration given by the petitioner for said land. At the ensuing session of Congress a law was passed authorizing friendly Indians holding reservations to sell the same in fee simple upon condition of their removal west of the Mississippi. Peggy Bailey havong remoevd west of the Mississippi, and the petitioner having paid her, in the estimation of the committee, an adequate price for said land, it is believed by the said committee that the petitioner comes under the equity of the law now in force as regards all other Indian reservations, and have therfore reported a bill authorizing the petitioner to enter said land at government price.

Richard married Mary UNKNOWN. Mary was born in 1730; died in 1799. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]