Revolutionary War

Kentucky Land Agreement Signed by Federal Judge and Future Supreme Court Justice and Witnessed by Frontiersman and Future Congressman

HARRY INNES, THOMAS TODD, and DAVID PRUITT, Document Signed, Agreement, February 24, 1790. Witnessed by Simon Kenton and Thomas Speed. 1 p., 7.75" x 6.25". Expected folds; some tears on folds.

Complete Transcript

Memo It is agreed between Harry Innes & Thomas Todd Attornies in fact for the Devisees of William Stewart deceased of the one part & David Pruitt of the other That if a certain part of Stulls Presumption which is assigned to Wm Stewart containing four Hundred Acres, should be obtained They the said Attornies will give the refusal of purchases to the said Pruitt provided it shall ever be the wish of the said Devisees to dispose of that part of the said four hundred acres which may interfere with the said Pruitts Lands. Witness our hands this 24th day of February 1790.

Harry Innes Simon Kenton Thomas Todd Tho.Speed David Periot

Historical Background

William Stewart (1739-1782) accompanied Daniel Boone to Kentucky in 1773, and acquired a valuable estate there. He was killed by Loyalists and Native Americans at the Battle of Blue Licks in August 1782 in one of the last battles of the American Revolutionary War. Stewart's sister Hannah Harris moved from Pennsylvania to care for his estates. Her daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Todd in 1788, and her daughter Ann married Harry Innes in 1792.

Apparently, Innes and Todd represented Stewart's heirs in several land transactions. In this agreement, they gave David Pruitt the right of first refusal to purchase four hundred acres, if Stewart's heirs decided to sell the land. Witnesses to this agreement included frontiersman Simon Kenton and future Congressman Thomas Speed.

Harry Innes (1752-1816) was born in Virginia and attended the College of William and Mary. Admitted to the bar in 1773, Innes worked as a lawyer in Bedford County, Virginia, then held a variety of government jobs from 1776 to 1782. He served as a judge with the Supreme Court of Judicature for the Kentucky District of Virginia from 1782 to 1784, then as Attorney General for the western district of Virginia from 1784 to 1789. He was a leader in the movement to separate Kentucky from Virginia, and President George Washington appointed him as the first judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kentucky, a position he held from 1789 until his death.

Thomas Todd (1765-1826) was born in Virginia and served in the American Revolutionary War. He graduated from Liberty Hall Academy in Lexington (now Washington and Lee University) in 1783. He studied the law and surveying before moving to Kentucky, where his cousin Harry Innes had been appointed to the Supreme Court of Judicature for the Kentucky District of Virginia. Todd read law and gained admission to the Kentucky bar in 1786. Three years later, he became the clerk of the Kentucky Court of Appeals. In 1801, Todd was appointed a Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals and in 1806 became its Chief Justice. In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Todd as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, a position he held until his death.

Simon Kenton (1755-1836) was born in Virginia and fled to the frontier in 1771 after fearing he had killed a man. He later learned the man had survived. In 1777, he saved his friend Daniel Boone's life. He served as a scout for George Rogers Clark in 1779 in Clark's expedition to capture Fort Sackville in what is now Vincennes, Indiana. In 1785, a teenager taught Kenton how to write his name. In 1793-1794, Kenton fought in the Northwest Indian War with General Anthony Wayne. He began making claims in the Ohio country as early as 1788 and led settlers there in 1799. He served as a brigadier general in the state militia and led militiamen in the War of 1812, including participation in the Battle of the Thames in 1813.

Thomas Speed (1768-1842) was born in Virginia and moved with his parents to Kentucky in 1782, where he gained employment in the court clerk's office. He was a merchant in Danville and Bardstown in 1790 and served as clerk of two circuit courts. He served as an officer in the War of 1812. Voters elected him as a Democratic Republican to represent Kentucky in the U.S. House of Representatives, and he served from 1817 to 1819. Returning to agriculture, he also served in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1821, 1822, and 1840.

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