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- There is a "Bootle Bay" on Grand Bahama Island
The approximately 200 plus acres in question are reportedly a portion of the land granted by the Crown to John Bootle in the 1800s, and form a part of Bootle Bay. Several of his descendants had been fighting for the land in court, but in the end, it was Wilbert Bootle whose claim to the land was rejected by Justice Thompson. (The other relatives withdrew their claims.)
It should be noted that the 2,000 acres (8.1 kmē) of land purportedly bought by the Sammons Organization (Jack Tar Resorts-USA) in the 1960's was fraudulently acquired. There are records of families living on the land long before the arrival of the British who colonized the islands. The era of the UBP - United Bahamian Party or the Bay Street Boys (1940-1968) created mass wealth among elite business men who ran the government and created the laws to protect their interest in land acquired fraudently. The John Bootle (Crown Land) was granted in 1820 to John Bootle. Legend has it that he died under mysterious causes. The local government overseer at the time of Bootle's death is rumoured to have wanted to acquire Bootle's land. Bootle's body was never found. Bootle had two sons, one of whom stayed on the land and the other who fled to Abaco with the crown grant land documents where they live today. The surviving family heirs to John Bootle include the following surnames - Roberts, Nesbit, Smith, Ferguson, Williams and Ashe. Other families living in the settlement today would no doubt dispute who the original land owners are. The largest land owners prior to the arrival of the Bay Street Boys were the Williams clan who possessed 960 acres of the land once belonging to John Bootle. Proper research on the verification of this information can be found on microfiche in the National Archives in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.
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