A Crown Grant is the first legal document by which the Government of Jamaica gave a piece of land to a private person — it’s like the land’s original “birth certificate.”
Definition
A Crown Grant in Jamaica is an official instrument issued by the Government (the Crown) that originally transferred ownership of land from the State to a private individual or entity. Crown Grants were commonly used during the colonial and post-emancipation periods to allocate land for settlement, farming, or development.
Key Points
- Crown Grants were the original root of title for many private lands in Jamaica.
- They are part of the old law title (deed system) and often date back to the 19th or early 20th century.
- A Crown Grant would describe the land (sometimes vaguely, before modern surveys) and name the grantee.
- To be useful today, a Crown Grant usually needs to be converted into a registered title under the Registration of Titles Act.
