Speculation in West Florida land offered a lucrative opportunity at the time of the advent of the Union Jack on Dauphin Island in 1763. Not only did Major Robert Farmar evict every French government official and French soldier from his new colony of West Florida but for over a year he was the head of the government and a willing customer for any migrating Frenchman who might have a little land to sell. Farmar claimed he never mixed public funds with his private fortune(acquired as prize money for his participation in the British conquest of Havana) however, he was forced to face a court martial that accused him of multiple abuses of the King's resources.  By the time Farmar had settled into retirement at his home near present-day Stockton, he had accumulated land title to over 10,000 acres of West Florida ranging from Natchez all the way to present-day Baldwin County. Some of the acreage to which Farmar contended he owned clear title included most of Dauphin Island and three-eighths of Horn Island but as the reader will soon find out, Major Farmar's title to Dauphin Island was doubtful even during his lifetime. Those doubts certainly did not matter to his descendants of Major Robert Farmar and when the United States finally raised its flag over Mobile Bay in the spring of 1813, they found that many Farmar descendants had returned to Mobile and were prepared to argue that they had preemption rights to Dauphin Island, Horn Island as well as the rest of Major Farmar's 10,000+ acre estate.