In colonial Amerca, did folks in 1 colony ever acquire land some colonies away but not make the move for a few years?

Question

As administrator of the Lynn Y-DNA project at FamilyTreeDNA, as well as a Lynn genealogist, I'm trying to reconcile a close match of two project members with the known histories of their respective families.

The earliest proven history of the one family begins with the 1753 purchase by James Lynn of land in what is now York Co., SC.  The proven history of the other family includes four brothers who lived in Somerset County, NJ including a James who was listed as a Somerset County freeholder in 1753 but sold his land in 1759 and afterward disappears from NJ records.

There is this circumstantial evidence.  The NJ James had 4 brothers named William, Alexander, Joseph, and John (as shown in their father's will); and the SC James named 4 of his 7 sons William, Alexander, Joseph, and John (as shown in his will).  Circumstantial evidence of course isn't worth anything by itself, but the close Y-DNA match would seem to support the two James Lynns being one and the same.

So, to reiterate, did folks in one American colony ever acquire land in colonies some distance away but not make their move for a few years?  In this case, it would be 1753 for the purchase of SC land and 1759 for the actual move.

Comments

Alternatively, could he not have moved to South Carolina in 1753, but held onto his New Jersey land for another six years before selling it?  Maybe relatives were living on the land, for instance.

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I know that some early colonists not liking the puritan led colonies did move to other colonies - perhaps Penn colony.  The history of the colony has often said with members left and where they went.

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Julie and Lynn, thank you both for your comments.  I should have also mentioned that the NJ James made payments to a church there for 1756, 1757, 1758, and half of 1759.  The half year presumably was because of his plans to leave.  I do wonder if the 1753 purchase of SC land is a misreading of 1758.  Unfortunately, I haven't seen the original land record, only an extract.  Thank you again for your thoughts.

Answer 1

I've seen a number of cases where it appears that a person owned property in a different colony before moving there. The different colony was probably most often an adjacent one, but there were also definitely some cases of people acquiring property in a distant colony - eg if they were wealthy investors/proprietors or merchants/mariners who got around. For example, Edward Ashley of Boston was a ship's captain/mariner who sailed the trade route between New England and North Carolina. Although he never moved to North Carolina, at the time of his death in Boston in 1698, he held sufficient property in North Carolina that a separate administrator was appointed for his estate there.

Comments

Thank you for the helpful information Chase.

Answer 2

Definitely a possibility. There are many variables: wealth, intervening health issues, local and national situations (French Indian Wars, Native American raids in both areas), transportation difficulties, etc.

You might check adjacent states like PA to see if he shows up there...PA is filled with Linns and Lynns so who knows?

Hope this helps.

Comments

Thank you Luisa.  While not related to the family in question, my own Lynns lived in Pennsylvania for several generations.