betwen 1749-1770, land speculators organized competing companies that sought royal grants to western lands
Source: Library of Congress, A new and accurate map of North America : laid down according to the latest, and most approved observations and discoveries (1763)
The land speculators who organized the Mississippi Land Company on June 3, 1763 prepared their first request for a 2,500,000 acre land grant along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, they anticipated the recent victory in the French and Indian War would enable westward expansion. When the Proclamation of 1763 was issued a month later, the investors viewed it as just a temporary impediment to land speculation. The king was asked to build two forts, at government expense, to protect the settlers.
The Lee family took the lead in organizing the company. Only 50 investors would be allowed to participate, with five spaces reserved for men in London. Of the first 24 to sign the company's Articles of Agreement, 22 men were from Virginia. George Washington and his brother Augustine Washington were among them.
The investors included some members of the Ohio Company, They had obtained a grant of up to 500,000 acres in 1749, but the French and Indian War and then the Proclamation of 1763 blocked land sales. To overcome the constraint of the Proclamation of 1763, the Ohio Company needed approval by the Privy Council in London. Ohio Company investors who joined the Mississippi Company were hedging their bets, hoping that one of the grants would be approved by royal officials.
Terms of the Mississippi Company proposal, which George Washington called the Mississippi Adventure, included:1
Arthur Lee led the lobbying effort in London for the Mississippi Company. He was outmaneuvered by the Pennsylvania land speculators who sought what was known as the Walpole Grant, and they had Benjamin Franklin as their agent in London. The Walpole Grant investors merged with the Ohio Company, whose investors decided to join rather than fight their rival. The merged group was renamed the Grand Ohio Company.
The Grand Ohio Company expanded its request from 2,500,000 acres to 20,000,000 million acres after discussion with Lord Hillsborough, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, If the Grand Ohio Company was authorized to sell that amount of land, there would be no opportunity for the Mississippi Company.
Hillsborough had recommended the increased request because he thought it would lead to total rejection by the Privy Council. Hillsborough thought all the land company requests should be denied and the Proclamation of 1763 should guide policy, keeping British military costs low by keeping settlers isolated from Native Americans.
The Privy Council rejected the Mississippi Company request in 1770. The company's investors, while of great significance in the colonies, lacked enough influence in London.
Surprisingly, the Privy Council also rejected Hillsborough's effort to enforce the fundamental approach of the Proclamation of 1763 and approved the 20,000,000 acre grant to the Grand Ohio Company in 1772. Their grant was called "Pittsylvania" at the time, but renamed "Vandalia" in 1773.
In the end, in part because of Benjamin Franklin's involvement with the insurrection in Massachusetts, Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn never approved the Vandalia grant either. The success of the American Revolution ended the capacity of royal officials to issue grants to the Mississippi Company or any other group.2