A Crown Grant (also called Letters Patent) is the original instrument by which the Crown conveyed land to its first private holder. It is the root of all private land title in Canada. Every parcel of privately held land in this country traces its chain of title back to a Crown Grant — the moment the Crown first transferred the land out of the public domain and into private hands.

The Grant was issued in the name of the King and ran to the grantee, their heirs and assigns forever. It was not a lease, a licence, or a temporary permission. It was a conveyance — a permanent, bilateral contract between the Crown and the grantee that travels with the land through every subsequent transfer.

Why Does It Matter What the Grant Says?

The Crown Grant defines the full scope of what was conveyed. Under the reservation rule, only what was expressly reserved in the original Grant stayed with the Crown. Everything not reserved passed to the grantee permanently. This includes mineral rights, water rights, stream beds, and airspace that later governments and registry systems have treated as Crown property — in many cases without lawful authority to do so.

Modern title registration systems (Certificates of Title, parcel registers) have preserved the Crown's reservations while quietly burying the grantee-side rights. The registered title you hold today may reflect only a fraction of what the original Grant actually conveyed.

Why Is It Important to Claim?

A right not asserted is a right not exercised. The Crown Grant exists whether or not you have located it — but its terms do not protect you automatically. Perfecting your title means:

1. Locating the original Grant and establishing your chain of title back to it
2. Identifying all rights conveyed and confirming what was and was not reserved
3. Drafting the appropriate documents to assert the full scope of the Grant against any competing claim

The Grant is a permanent contract. The Crown had sixty years from the date of issuance to challenge or correct its terms. That window is long closed on every Grant in Canada. What the King gave, no successor government can reclaim — it can only govern what remains within its proper authority.

Your Crown Grant is the foundation of your title. Locating and asserting it is how you stand on that foundation.

According to Bouvier's Law Dictionary (1914), allodial describes an estate held by absolute ownership, without recognizing any superior to whom any duty is due on account of it.

In the United States, land title is essentially allodial — every holder in fee simple has absolute and unqualified dominion over their land. In several U.S. states this has been formally declared by statute.

In England, and similarly in Canada, there is no allodial tenure in the strict sense — all land is held mediately or immediately of the Crown. However, fee simple remains the most absolute dominion a person can hold over their land within that system. The Crown is the root of all title, and every private landowner's chain of title traces back to an original Crown Grant.

To move as close to allodial ownership as the Canadian system permits, one must perfect their title.

A perfect title is one which is good both at law and in equity. (Warner v. Mut. A. Co., 21 Conn. 449)

A title is perfect when it is enforceable — not merely claimed. The law distinguishes between perfect obligations, which can be enforced, and imperfect obligations, which cannot. The same principle applies to title: a title documented, traced to its Crown Grant root, and properly asserted is a perfect title. One that is unclear, unchallenged, or resting on incomplete records is not.

How Do I Perfect My Title?

We locate your original Crown Grant or Land Patent from Land Titles and draft the documents needed to perfect and assert your title.

In Canada we need the original Crown Grant that severs title from the Crown (the sovereign).

In the United States we need the original Land Patent that severs title from the sovereign (the President of the United States of America). 

We need a Certificate of Acknowledgement and Acceptance of the Declaration of Land Patent / Crown Grant to verify we hold perfect title. This can be done by publishing your Acknowledgement and Acceptance as a legal notice in the newspaper circulating in your neighborhood (recommended) or by posting it in a public place for 60 days (signed by two private witnesses or a public notary).

Once this process is complete you have obtained your allodial title.

Bouvier's Law Dictionary 1914METES AND BOUNDS: The boundary lines of land, with their terminal points and angles.

The metes and bounds survey describes fully the land granted. On current Certificates of Title a "Legal Description" describes the Lot or Parcel number and references a Survey that contains a variety of other lots incorporated into the municipality. In order to differentiate your land that has been separated from the sovereign from the municipality that presumes jurisdiction over it, we must create an "Equitable Description" using Metes and Bounds.Hiring a surveyor to create a metes and bounds survey can cost over $6000. Instead we can reference old surveys and reverse engineer a highly accurate Metes and Bounds "Equitable Description" of your land.

As stated above, if we use the "Legal Description" the municipality can presume the land  is within their jurisdiction. By creating an "Equitable Description" we rebut any presumption from the beginning. This "Equitable Description" is  used within the Newspaper Public Notice and the Certificate of Acknowledgement and Acceptance of the Declaration of Land Patent / Crown Grant. Usually Land Grants are grants of large portions of land; in order to clarify which portion of tract of land you own we use Metes and Bounds.