I keep hearing about people on distillery tours told that a "Corn Writ" gave away land in Kentucky and helped populate the state with distillers. As a person who knows Kentucky history, I have to say I am appaled by hearing this story. First of all, there was no need for Virginia to go to such lengths to give away land in Kentucky. The truth is the Corn Wris were inacted because of the opposite problem - too many people settled in Kentucky without a clear claim.
Kentucky land was filled by two different land grant companies and only one had a claim recognized by the goverment in Richmond. People had oved to Kentucky after purchasing land from both companies so the government in Virginia had to straighten out the mess as to who had legal claim to what. This was especially important since they wanted to pay their veterans of the Revolutionary war with land grants in Kentucky. The "Corn Writs" were laws that allowed a person ALREADY in Kentucky but had a grant from the Transylvania company (Daniel Boone for one) to make a portion of his claim legal if he could proove he had built a cabin and raised a crop of corn on the land. It did not give away land to people whio were not already in the state.
"Our people live almost exclusively on whiskey" - E H Taylor, Jr. 25 April 1873