Studies in American History 
61 
Kentucky, when about to become a separate state in 1789, 
signed articles of agreement with Virginia promising that 
all private rights and interests in the lands within her boun- 
dary which were derived from Virginia law prior to the time 
of separation should be secure and be regulated by the laws 
of the mother state. In October, 1797, Kentucky passed the 
first occupying-claimant law to protect her settlers. It pro- 
vided that when an occupant was evicted by someone having a 
previous title, the evicted settler should be exempt from the 
payment of all rents and profits prior to the day of notice of 
contested legal title ; also, if the new claimant proved a better 
title, he should pay for the valuable and lasting improvements 
made on the land prior to eviction, less only the damage done 
to the soil by waste and deterioration.^® 
While this law was fairly liberal it did not satisfy the set- 
tlers, and in 1812 Kentucky provided further that the occupy- 
ing claimant should be paid for all improvements made, 
whether valuable and permanent or not, up to the day judg- 
ment was entered against him; also, no damages could be 
collected from the evicted occupant for waste of the soil except 
for the time elapsing between the notice of adverse title and 
the granting of judgment by the court.®^ It is easily under- 
stood, in a rapidly growing pioneer state with a large annual 
emigrant population seeking lands for new homes, what a 
problem each county had in protecting its citizens in their 
land titles. “The laws of Virginia for the appropriation of 
lands were the greatest curse that ever befell Kentucky.”^° 
Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 24. 
John Bach McMaster, A History of the People of the United States (8 vols.. New 
York, 1883-1910), V, 414, 415. 
Collins, op. cit., II, 633. 
