BLUNSTON LICENSES

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Samuel Blunston was authorized to provide Licenses to would be land owners in the area west of the Susquehanna River. When William Penn died in 1718, his descendants were not sure they had authority to issue Land Patents or other deeds. In addition, William Penn really did not have a treaty with the Indians to do so, either. So for a long time the Land Office was closed. However, in the 1730's the Penns gave Samuel Blunston authority to issue land deeds in the form of Licenses. These were called "Blunston Licenses". They were really promissory notes to issue a proper deed whenever they were able to do so legally. A list of such Licenses has been found at Harrisburg, and is presented in the document linked here. Significantly, there were no Helm/Helms, etc. licenses. There were Shelby and Polk licenses however. Both of those families were ultimately in North Carolina, later.

The area involved was in York and Lancaster Counties, Pennsylvania which were formed in 1718, and Adams and Franklin Counties in 1736, Dauphin County in 1749. Blunston formed Hellam TWP in 1732. (No Helms have been found in that location.) Hellam is one of the English spellings for Helms, as is Hallam. Locals called it ÒHelms TownÓ. Maybe that merits more than a passing interest. Individuals with those Hallam/Hellam name spelling were found in the LDS IGI files, on a timely basis-and listed together with Helm/Helme. The significance is that some land was made available available in 1736-37, and was utilized by some who would show up in North Carolina later. If the Helms ancestors were in Pennsylvania in that time period, there were few places for them to go. The head of the Land office was reported to have said that no large acreage plot could be found East of the Susquehanna. The existing open Pennsylvania lands East of the Susquehanna and South of Blue Mountain were filled, except for newly opened upper Bucks County and west of the Lancaster County area, involving Blunston.

A further complication was that Maryland authorities were issuing land documents in the disputed area below the 40th parallel, and West of the Susquehanna, and attempting to enforce those rights with a troop of Sheriffs Deputies. I have read an article which indicated that the late-comers--those who could not get land patents after 1718, often built houses on other peoplesÕ grants, helped them a while, and moved on. Maybe Helms came into PA in that period, found those difficulties, and went on South to NC in 1747.

Or, they may have been in Darby about 1715-30 with some Broomes, from where they went West/South. Gerald's friend Ernest Broome said he found them in Bucks County records, at Harrisburg Court House. Ernest reported that when he went back to further study the item, it had been torn out of the record book. We checked the Bucks County land transactions at the Pennsylvania Archives, but did not find anything useful except more on the Thomas Helms farm which is mentioned in one BuckÕs County History as being sold about that time. We checked the records for that sale and found it to have been sold by the daughters of a Thomas Helling. In that area Helling is often reported as Helm. However, that is not relevant as the sale shows his true descendants. That item may have been the item Ernest Broome had found.

Records for persons having Helm(?) spelled names along with Polk and Shelby names have been found in the Conococheague Valley. This valley extends from Hagerstown, Maryland up into Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Polk records have been found near Carlisle, Pennsylvania having moved there from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. So far, no direct connection with our North Carolina Helms has been made.

This area of Maryland and Pennsylvania was the scene of fierce frontier Indian fighting in the 1742-1755 time frame. This time period is the same as the supposed Helms trek South (in 1747). They or their parents may well have been caught-up in the fighting, the Shelby family was directly involved in skirmishes with the Indians. Thousands of settlers perished as a result of these Indian attacks. Shelby, especially Evan Shelby, acquired large land holdings there because many farms had been deserted.

The point of this section is that the area has been searched for traces of Helms but none have been found, so far. A search of Franklin Co., Pa, records is pending.

Below is the file index, as we currently have it, on the licenses, but it is not to be considered a complete listing: