Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force January 16th, 1837

AN ACT in relation to the title of school and canal lands.
1

Certificates of purchase assignable, and how may be made

Patent to issue in name last assigned

Proviso

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That purchasers of school or canal lands or town lots, may by endorsement

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in writing on their certificates of purchase, transfer and assign all right and title to the lands or lots purchased, or transfers or assignments of such certificates may be made upon a separate paper, and transferees or assignees, may in like manner transfer and assign all such certificates, and in all cases where certificates have been or shall hereafter be transferred or assigned, patents shall issue in the name of the last transferee or assignee, Provided, That the transfers or assignments shall be proven by certificate of the school or acting canal commissioner; or proven in the manner required to prove the execution of deeds of conveyance, to entitle them to be admitted to record.

This act shall take effect from its passage.2

Approved Jan. 16th, 1837.

1Peter Pruyne introduced SB 9 in the Senate on December 19, 1836. On December 20, the Senate referred the bill to the Committee on the Judiciary. On December 30, the committee reported back the bill with an amendment, which the Senate approved. The Senate passed the bill as amended on December 31. On January 2, 1837, the House of Representatives referred the bill to the Committee on the Judiciary, which reported back the bill without amendment on January 5. The House passed the bill on January 9. On January 16, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 156, 159, 176, 220, 252, 255; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 79, 84, 125, 133, 180, 205, 211, 238.

2School lands referred to the land in each township reserved for public education. In 1818, when Congress passed the act enabling the Illinois Territory to become a state, it granted to every township in the state the proceeds of the sale of land in each township’s Section 16. This money became known as the common school fund. In 1829, the General Assembly enacted legislation authorizing and governing the sale of school lands. The General Assembly revised this law in 1831.
“An Act to Enable the People of the Illinois Territory to Form a Constitution and State Government, and for the Admission of Such State into the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States,” 18 April 1818, Statutes at Large of the United States, 3:428-31; W. L. Pillsbury, “Early Education in Illinois,” in Sixteenth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Illinois (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1886), 106-07; “An Act Authorizing the Sale of Sections Numbered Sixteen, or Such Land as May be Granted, in Lieu Thereof, to the Inhabitants of Such Townships, for the Use of Schools,” 22 January 1829, Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois (1829), 150-54; “An Act to Amend an Act, Entitled ‘An Act Authorizing the Sale of Sections Numbered Sixteen, or Such Land as May be Granted in Lieu Thereof to the Inhabitants of Such Townships, for the Use of Schools, Approved Jan. 22, 1829,’” 15 February 1831, Laws of Illinois (1831), 172-76.