Duplin County, NC - Land Grant Maps

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File contributed and posted with permission from the
Duplin County, NC Register of Deeds

Our thanks go to Mr. Thomas Mitchell Byrd for the preparation of
these land grant deed maps.

Unofficial Duplin County Land Grant Maps 

The Duplin County land grant maps were created by Duplin County native 
and noted historical researcher Thomas Mitchell Byrd. Mr. Byrd began 
mapping the county’s land grants in 1972 and continued the project for 
the next 40 years. In 2012, with the project completed to his satisfaction, 
Mr. Byrd donated copies of his maps to the Duplin County Register of Deeds 
Office with the hope that the valuable information they contain would aid 
historical researchers, genealogists and title searchers for generations 
to come. 

According to Mr. Byrd, "A land grant might be thought of as the first deed 
to a piece of property. It was the instrument by which the government conveyed 
land to an individual. The government owned the land initially because North 
Carolina, as one of the 13 original states, began as a colony of the British 
crown. The first British explorers reaching the Carolina shores claimed all 
newly discovered land, not for themselves, but for their sovereign, King 
George II. The first grant was issued in what is present-day Duplin County in 
1736 in the name of King George II. Grants continued to be issued in the name 
of the sovereign George II followed by his son and successor George III until 
North Carolina declared its independence in 1776. The state then seized the 
remaining 'crown lands' and issued grants until all public land was taken up, 
which for Duplin County was in 1916. 

"The Duplin County land grants maps show the first land owners in the county, 
when they received their grants, and the size, configuration, and location of 
those grants. There are 24 maps in the series, each of which covers the same 
area and carries the same name as quadrangles of the United States Geological 
Survey. USGS quadrangle maps were chosen as base maps because of the precision 
with which they depict waterways. At least one waterway is cited as a reference 
in nearly every grant, and those waterways have been the principal guide in 
drawing these maps."