The following list is an attempt to identify those persons living in Washington County, as now constituted, before the year 1800. A manageable geographic area is chosen for discussion rather than the originally designated county stretching from 31' to 32'28' latitude and from the Chattahoochee to the Pearl River.

Such a listing, to be significant, should distinguish between those occupying the area west of Tombigbee, those east of the Tensaw, and those west of the Mobile River. Sources available for this purpose are American State Papers (Public Lands); Brand Register of San Esteban District (1795), and Census of Inhabitants, San Esteban District (1797).

The brand register of San Esteban District provides a description (with diagrams) of the registrant's brand used for his horses and the marks used on the ears of his hogs (e.g., split and underbit for left ear, crop and hold for right). Either was used for cattle. Spanish officials authenticated all entries. Agents sometimes represented the registrant when he could not write or for other reasons. Free mulattos and free Negroes were noted. An added item mentions distance to registrant's home (usually down river) and identified "boarder" and "teacher."

The census of San Esteban District lists individual inhabitants, with and without wives (by age and nationality), number and sex of children (two age groupings) and slaves, number of livestock, and amount of harvest. Widow status is indicated, and officials are so designated.

Public Lands (Vol. 1) of the American State Papers records the proceedings of Boards of Land Commissioners appointed by President Jefferson to hear claims for land west of the State of Georgia and south of the State of Tennessee, to which Indian title had been extinguished. That board with purview over those lands east of Pearl River met at Fort Stoddert in 1804, hearing and ruling on claims north of the Spanish boundary (31st parallel).

The tabulation here of land claim presences in Washington County lists the earliest date an individual's name appears in the land records. British and Spanish grantees, as well as applicants claiming occupancy (as of the Spanish evacuation of Mississippi Territory, 1797), are so earmarked. There were claimants to title as much as five transfers removed from the original grant. Intermediate owners are also listed. There were witnesses in support of every claim and an occasional tenant worker, as well as adjacent landowners (named by dated statements). Some others were squatters, and some may have been speculators. A person may appear in these records in connection with several dates and in various functions, but the earliest date only is here recorded to show his first appearance on the west side of the Tombigbee River, from Sinta Bogue Creek south to four miles below the Cut-off. Some titles, relationships, and dates of death are given.

In the Public Lands, testimony of claimants and their witnesses was not always limited to support of their claim. We learn that Bassett's Creek (west side of Tombigbee) was then called Thichapataw. James McGrew, who died in 1797, left his widow Constance and their children, Peggy, Elizabeth (De Castro), Alexander, Giles, James, Jane, Nancy, Keziah, John, and William. One Frederick Smith inhabited and cultivated a place called Old Field in 1797, and in the next year his wife was scalped by the Indians. He then sold the claim for his improvement to John Wheat for one gallon of taffia. Indians related to the widow of Zadoc Brashears inhabited and cultivated his land in 1797 and 1798.

Spelling of proper names in the land records was seldom consistent (e.g., Donally/Donnerly/Donnelly/ Donelly). Choice here was guided by the most common usage. Identifying American proper names from Spanish records offers a unique problem. Picture the process: In 1797 a Tombigbee backwoodsman presents himself before the Spanish official at Fuerte San Esteban de Tombecbe and declares his name is, say, Nathaniel Blackwell. The Spaniard, not having a "K" or a "W" in his language, writes down Natalio Blaquel. Around 180 years later a dutiful clerk at the Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla, honors an American's request and attempts to decipher this now ancient and barely legible script. This copyist's attempt to match the names (in their several versions) with those of the American list is presented to the reader who can then judge for himself the degree of probability. Unmatched Spanish versions are entered opposite American family groupings, where indicated, or added to the end of the list.