Kraft v. Burr

SENIOR JUSTICE WHITING

delivered the opinion of the Court.

*275In this appeal, the primary issues are whether letters of patent from two English monarchs, acting through their royal governors, could and did grant exclusive fishing rights in a navigable river, and, if so, whether the complainants are the successors in title to the patentees and can assert those rights to prohibit the public from fishing in the part of the river running over their land.

Ethridge E. Burr and a number of other persons (the property owners) claim to own the stream beds under parts of the Jackson River in Alleghany County…