Just for my own education can either you or Didger give me a reliable reference to the term as you describe it. I apolgise if I have wronged Didger in any way but please educate me
OK I've educated myself. I found this:
"Here’s how land patents work:
The Land was originally acquired within the United States of America by some Treaty.
Your Land Patent secures the rights of the Treaty upon which the land was originally acquired within the territories of the United States from the Treaty to the individual person named on the patent.
The patent specifically grants the described lands to the party named on the patent and to their heirs and their assigns forever.
The party named on the patent then passes the inheritance, grants, or assigns the patented lands to someone else, which heir or assignee is now named on the patent by that assignment. The documents that demonstrate such an assignment are often called, "Deeds".
Because the granter can not compel you to accept the assignment it is necessary for you to take some action to signify your acceptance of the assignment. For this reason we use Team Law's copyrighted "Declaration of Land Patent".
Once you have accepted the proper assignment of the Land Patent with proper documentation, you are named on the physical Land Patent where it says, "and to his heir and assigns forever".
So it looks as if the Treaties that I found were possibly only a stepping stone to the "Land Patent" that Didger mentioned.
Thanks to John and Didger for educating me in American history and terminology. I am currently eating a piece of tasty humble pie
Regards and happy shooting,
Graham