Old Three Hundred

The "Old Three Hundred" were 297 grantees who purchased 307 parcels of land from Stephen Fuller Austin in Mexican Texas. Each grantee was head of a household, or in some cases, a partnership of unmarried men. Austin was an American approved in 1822 by Mexico as an empresariofor this effort, after the nation had gained independence from Spain. By 1825, the colony had a population of 1,790.

The colony encompassed an area that ran from the Gulf of Mexico on the south, to near present-day Jones Creek in Brazoria County, Brenham in Washington County, Navasota in Grimes County, and La Grange in Fayette County. It was the first official colony of Anglo-American settlers in Mexico.