Colonial land law radically simplified English doctrine

Evidence

Land law was, as we noted, radically simplified. Some of it came from local English law, rather than classic common law. Still, in theory, the ultimate overlord of all colonial land was the king. He had granted the land to others: to proprietors, like Lord Baltimore, or by way of charter to settlers, as in Massachusetts. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 277

Categorization

• XREF: Pays off the ch3 thread that land scarcity vs abundance drove divergence — colonists kept English terms but shed the layered estate structure. — connects to: Complex English conveyancing rules were intolerable in America’s mass land market — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1424; Apparent opposites in land law actually served one developmental goal — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1464