Robertson's Colony

The 1827 transfer of the contract from Leftwich to the Texas Association added territory that included all or part of an additional thirteen counties.

On March 2, 1822, a group of seventy individuals known as the Texas Association met in Nashville, Tennessee to draft a letter to the Mexican government, petitioning for colonization.

[10][11] In the two-year wait in Mexico City before the passage of its General Colonization Law, Leftwich had depleted the monies advanced to him by the Texas Association.

[12] The present-day Texas counties covered by this original Leftwich grant were Bastrop, Bell, Brazos, Burleson, Burnet, Comanche, Coryell, Falls, Hamilton, Lampasas, Lee, Limestone, McLennan, Milam, Mills, Robertson, and Williamson.

[1] In exchange for an additional $14,000 (equivalent in 2015 to approximately $295,000) Leftwich sold the colonization contract to the Texas Association on August 8, 1825.

Dr. Felix Robertson and a group of advance men made an exploratory trip to Texas to lay the groundwork for the colonization.

[16] It extended the boundary to include the present-day Texas counties of Bosque, Brown, Callahan, Eastland, Erath, Hill, Hood, Jack, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell, and Stephens.

Although Austin initially agreed to help Robertson, he and his secretary Samuel May Williams applied for a colonization grant of the same area in their own names.

The legal description being:[20]Beginning on the western bank of the Navasoto cieek, at the crossing of the upper road loading from Bexar to NacogJoches; thence with said road westwardly, to the dividing ridge between the waters of the rivers Brazos and Colorado: thence with this ridge of hills northwest, to strike the Comanche trace leading to Nacogdoches; thence with this trace or road to Navasoto creek ; thence with its meanderings downwards, to the place of beginning.The contract set Robertson's payment as empresario to be five leagues and five labors, 23,027.5 acres (93.189 km2; 35.9805 sq mi), of premium lands for every 100 families introduced into the colony.

He filed a lawsuit in Travis County District Court in November 1837, to receive his payment of premium lands for the families he did introduce.

1833 map depicting Robertson's Colony in green, north-central Texas, as Austin & Williams Grant