Source Information

Maine State Archives
Ancestry.com. Maine, U.S., Revolutionary War Land Grants, 1776-1780 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Original data: Maine State Archives. Revolutionary War Land Grants and Pension Applications Index. Augusta, Maine: Maine State Archives.

About Maine, U.S., Revolutionary War Land Grants, 1776-1780

This database contains an index to Revolutionary War land grant and pension applications held by the Maine State Archives.

During the Revolutionary War, offers of bounty lands for military service provided incentive both to serve and to win, since no grants would accompany a British victory. Later, both grants and pensions were offered to veterans (and through them, to their widows and heirs) as compensation or a reward for service.

States with reserve lands available typically offered bounty lands in these areas. Massachusetts offered their soldiers lands in what would become the state of Maine in 1820. In 1835 and 1836, Maine passed its own legislation to provide lands for Revolutionary War veterans who had enlisted in Massachusetts or the District of Maine and were then living in the state.

This database is an index of veterans and widows who applied for these land grants. It lists names, residence, and the source for the application documents. The abbreviations in the source column stand for

  • Maine = Maine Land Grant
  • Mass. = Massachusetts Land Grant
  • HCCR = Hancock County Court Records
  • LCCR = Lincoln County Court Records
  • YCCR = York County Court Records

Copies of the applications can be obtained for a fee from the Maine State Archives, 84 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0084.

Updates:
16 Dec 2020: Additional records created though database improvements.