One of the many land-speculation companies formed in Virginia prior to the Revolutionary War (1775-83), the Ohio Company was created in 1747 through a partnership between a London merchant named John Han-bury and a group of Virginia gentlemen led by Thomas Lee. The Ohio Company hoped to obtain land and trade rights in the area west of the Appalachian Mountains. The company planned in turn to sell the lands at a higher price to immigrants and make a handsome profit. In 1748 the group petitioned the English government in an attempt to acquire a 500,000 acre grant. In 1749 the British government approved the grant, giving the Ohio Company 200,000 acres immediately. The grant stipulated that the company settle 200 families on their lands within seven years. The Ohio Company sent Christopher Gist to explore the lands while attempting to recruit settlers from Europe to populate the land grant. In 1754 the company began to build Fort Prince George at the forks of the Ohio River.
However, the French also claimed the Ohio area. Before it was completed, Fort Prince George was seized by the French. Native Americans in the area also claimed the Ohio Company lands and joined the French in seizing the fort and driving out the few settlers who had populated the Ohio Company lands. During the French and Indian War (1754-63), the company’s land settlement and trade goals were halted.
After the war ended, the company was further hampered by the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited settlement beyond the Appalachians. However, the company was encouraged by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768), which adjusted the settlement line west. In the meantime, new land claims overlapped the claims of the Ohio Company, prompting the company’s representative, George Mercer, to exchange the Ohio Company land claims for shares in a the new Vandalia Company in 1770. Some of the Ohio Company’s representatives continued to press their claims, but by 1779, the Ohio Company’s land claims were overturned by the Virginia legislature. Since the Ohio Company had not surveyed their lands, their claims were ruled to be forfeited.
—Michael L. Cox
World History
