Legal Definitions - land patent

A land patent is a legal document issued by the government that grants a private person the right to own and use a piece of public land. It is a type of public grant. The corners of the land are staked, but the boundary lines may not be run out at the time of the grant. There are different types of land patents, including:

• Call patent: A land patent in which the corners have been staked but the boundary lines have not been run out at the time of the grant.
• Escheat patent: A land patent that is issued when the land has been forfeited to the government due to the lack of heirs or other reasons.
• Lapse patent: A land patent that is issued to replace an earlier patent to the same land that lapsed because the previous patentee did not claim it.

Examples of land patents include the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted land to settlers who agreed to live on and improve the land for at least five years, and the Railroad Land Grants, which gave land to railroad companies to encourage the construction of railroads.