“ The seven years' possession, to be available, must be 'by virtue of a grant, or of a deed founded on a grant.' It is as essential that the deed should be founded on a grant, as that a deed should exist. A possession of seven years does no more in the one case than in the other bar a legal title. ”

“ A deed cannot be 'founded on a grant' which gives a title not derived in law or equity from that grant; and the words founded on a grant, are too important to be discarded. The act of assembly vesting lands in the trustees of the town of Nashville, is a grant of those lands, and as the defendant shows no title under the trustees, nor under any other grant, his possession of seven years cannot protect his title, nor bar that of the plaintiff. ”

“ The judges and lawyers of the state of North Carolina have been much divided on the construction of this act; some maintaining that, like other acts of limitation, it protects mere naked possession; others, that the first and second sections (which are retrospective) have such an influence on the third and fourth, (which are prospective,) as to limit their operation to a possession acquired and held by colour of title. ”