Improve or Improvement are terms used in historical wills, deeds, and documents relating to the ability to work a property, enhance its condition and produce income.
Improvement included cutting down trees and preparing fields suitable for growing crops or planting orchards. The term also applied to the erection of buildings such as houses, barns, and tobacco houses.
Examples of the use of the term are:
In a deed from Arthur Crouch to Joseph Herrick, Crouch wrote “ I give and bequeath all my estate I have to Joseph Herrick. I do reserve the right of improvement of my whole estate both real and personal during my natural life and after my decease the improvement of one third part to my wife during her natural life then to return to Joseph Herrick.”
In a deed from Benjamin Fowler and Jane Axsell to John Conaway, Fowler and Axsell conveyed “Bears Thickett” containing 100 acres together with all the edifices, improvements, benefits and advantages thereon.
In a court case, widow Hannah Read sued her ex-father-in-law stating “that she had no allowance or provisions to support herself or her children since she could not improve her deceased husband's estate since her father-in-law was still living and occupying it.”
In a survey in pursuance of a warrant to Samuel Myers, the survey noted “improvement at time of survey, a cabin & family in it and near 2 acres of land under good fences.”
In the will of Kendal Parker he bequeathed to his wife Ruth “the use and improvement of half my dwelling house”. He gave his daughter Ruth “the privilege of dwelling in and improving the other half of my house.”
Under the Virginia land law of 1779, any bona fide settler in Kentucky County (also known as the Kentucky District) prior to January 1, 1778, who had made an improvement and planted a crop of corn was eligible for a 400-acre certificate of settlement for the land he or she had improved. A Land Commission was appointed to hear testimony from Kentucky County residents and their witnesses.
Under Homestead Law acts, some of the state's pioneers were granted land with the provision that the land was improved within a specified term, such as in Oklahoma. Other states, like Ohio & Kentucky, required that settlers improve the land before they received it.
