lapsed land

Land entered by a homesteader upon the public domain under an entry which he did not perfect so as to be entitled to a patent or other conveyance of title by the government. 42 Am J1st Pub L §§ 19 et seq. Land covered by a patent which the patentee has lost by his failure to make payments or to comply with other conditions of the patent; such as the failure to pay quitrents or to cultivate the land. Wilcox v Calloway, 1 Va (1 Wash) 38, 39. In the early settlement of the country, the man who received a grant of land and failed, at first in three, and afterwards in five years, to seat and improve it, was held to have abandoned it; it received the denomination of "lapsed land," and was declared to be forfeited. Hawkins v Barney's Lessee (US) 5 Pet 457, 468, 8 L Ed 190, 194.