In Texas, we were under Spanish rule, then French, then Spanish, then Mexico, then the Republic of Texas, and now Texas State.

In the 1845 Texas Constitution, there are several Articles which act as a Trust Indenture. "ARTICLE VII. GENERAL PROVISIONS. SECTION 20. The rights of property and of action which have been acquired under the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Texas shall not be divested; nor shall any rights or actions, which have been divested, barred, or declared null and void, by the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Texas, be re-invested, revis[v]ed or reinstated by this Constitution; but the same shall remain precisely in the situation which they were before the adoption of this Constitution."

This confirms the rights and title to private property remain intact with the inhabitants. In Vernon's Laws, Texas acknowledges, confirms and validates land patents and grants from Spain, Mexico and the Republic of Texas. This is current Public Record.

Several Articles were carried over from the 1845 Texas Constitution to the 1876 Organic Constitution, a couple have been repealed, such as 1876 Texas Section 18, on November 2, 1999. Any conveyance before 1999, Owner's rights and protections are Vested, as their land was conveyed to them prior.

AmJur 63C

§ 4 Construction

In settling land claims involving the land of a superseded government, a court or tribunal is bound by the treaty under which the lands were ceded, international law, equitable principles, the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, and the laws, customs, and usages of the ceding nation. n1  An individual's rights in land granted by a foreign government are determined by the laws of the foreign government as they existed at the time of the grant of lands.  

International Law: The modern usage of nations, which has become law, would be violated; that sense of justice and of right, which is acknowledged and felt by the whole civilized world, would be outraged; if private property should be generally confiscated, and private rights annulled, on a change in the sovereignty of the country. The people change their allegiance, their relation to their ancient sovereign is dissolved; but their relations to each other, and their rights of property remain undisturbed.

The cession of territory from one sovereign to another passes the sovereignty only and does not interfere with private property.

A cession of territory by a government does not constitute a cession of property belonging to the inhabitants of the territory.

On the transfer of the sovereignty of a country, the inhabitants are protected in the possession of their private property. Such is the law of nations even in cases of conquest.  - US v Percheman 1833- 32 US 51, 7 Pet. 51, 8 L,Ed 604 (1833)

By the law of nations, independent of treaty stipulations, the cession of territory from one Government to another does not impair the rights of the inhabitants to their property. They retain all such rights, and are entitled to protection in them to the same extent as under the former Government. Public property and the sovereignty over the territory are only considered as passing by the cession.

A cession of territory is never understood to be a cession of the property belonging to its inhabitants. The King cedes that only which belonged to him. Lands he has granted were not his to cede. Neither party could so understand the cession; neither party could consider itself as attempting a wrong to individuals, condemned by the practice of the whole civilized world.

…subject to their concomitant obligations to the inhabitants. ( Pet. 513; - 9 Id. 734; - 10 Id. 330, 335, 726, 732, 736.) Both were regulated by the law of nations, according to which the rights of property are protected, even in the case of a conquered country, and held sacred and inviolable when it is ceded by treaty, with or without any stipulation to such effect.--”

When, therefore, California was ceded to the United States, the rights of property of its citizens remained unchanged. By the law of nations those rights, in the language of the Supreme Court, were “sacred and inviolable” and the obligation passed to the new Government to protect and maintain them. The obligation was political in its character, binding upon the conscience of the new Government, and to be executed by proper legislative action when the requisite protection could not be afforded by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings in the established tribunals, or by existing legislation. 

In protecting those claims it must necessarily make them good as against others asserting interests from events subsequently transpiring, otherwise its power to carry out the stipulations of the treaty and the obligations imposed by the law of nations would be limited and dependent, and not sovereign and supreme.

The right and power of the Government to protect and thus perfect the equitable claim were superior, as we have shown, to any subsequently acquired rights or claims of the State or of individuals. Immediately upon the cession of the country, the Government could have complied with its obligations, and at once have perfected the claim. Subsequently events not originating with the grantees can have no effect upon the validity of their claim, or the duty of the Government respecting it.

Teschemacher v. Thompson 18 Cal.  11 (1861) 79 Am.Dec 151
 

"Property is considered to be the highest right which a man can have to anything, real or personal, being a complex bundle of rights, duties, powers, and immunities, comprising a vast variety of rights, with certain rights such as the right of use, the right of enjoyment, and the right of disposal considered to be the constituent elements or essential attributes of property.  It is generally recognized that property includes the right of acquisition, the right of dominion, the right of possession, the right of use and enjoyment, the right of exclusion, and the right of disposition.  There are frequent statements to the effect that these rights may be exercised to the exclusion of all others, freely, and without restriction, and without control or diminution save only by the laws of the land, and that anything which destroys one or more of the elements of property to that extent destroys the property itself, although title and possession remain undisturbed."  - CORPUS JURIS SECUNDUM, 73 CJS Property §1
 

The sovereignty of a state extends to everything which exists by its own authority, or is introduced by its permission; but does not extend to those means which are employed by congress to carry into execution powers conferred on that body by the people of the United States. The attempt to use the taxing power of a state on the means employed by the government of the Union, in pursuance of the constitution, is itself an abuse, because it is the usurpation of a power which the people of a single state cannot give. The power to tax involves the power to destroy - Van Brocklin v. Anderson 117 U.S. 151 (1977) Pg. 3, right column]
 

1845 Texas Constitution
At the Bottom… AN ORDINANCE.
WHEREAS, various contracts have been entered into by the President of the Republic of Texas, with divers individuals, with the expressed intention of colonizing an enormous amount of the public domain of Texas; and …
[ Fletcher v. Peck - Marshall’s opinion in Fletcher v. Peck performed two creative acts of Contracts having Continuing  Obligations. http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/10/87]

ARTICLE VII.
GENERAL PROVISIONS.

SECTION 20. The rights of property and of action which have been acquired under the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Texas shall not be divested; nor shall any rights or actions, which have been divested, barred, or declared null and void, by the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Texas, be re-invested, revis[v]ed or reinstated by this Constitution; but the same shall remain precisely in the situation which they were before the adoption of this Constitution.

ARTICLE XIII.
SCHEDULE.

SECTION 1. That no inconvenience may arise from a change of separate natural [national] Government to a State Government, it is declared, that all process, which shall be issued in the name of the Republic of Texas, prior to the organization of the State government under this Constitution, shall be as valid as if issued in the name of the State of Texas.

SECTION 2. The validity of all bonds and recognizances, executed in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Texas, shall not be impaired by the change of government, but may be sued for, and recovered in the name of the Governor of the State of Texas, and all criminal prosecutions or penal actions, which shall have arisen, prior to the organization of the

State government under this Constitution, in any of the Courts of the Republic of Texas, shall be prosecuted to judgment and execution in the name of said State. All suits at law and equity which may be depending in any of the Courts of the Republic of

Texas, prior to the organization of the State government under this Constitution shall be transferred to the proper court of the State, which shall have jurisdiction of the subject-matter thereof.

SECTION 3. All laws and parts of laws now in force in the Republic of Texas, which are not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, the joint resolutions for annexing Texas to the United States, or to the provisions of this Constitution, shall continue and remain in force, as the laws of this State, until they expire by their own limitation, or shall be altered or repealed by the Legislature thereof.

SECTION 10. That no inconvenience may result from the change of government, it is declared that the laws of this Republic relative to the duties of officers both civil and military of the same, shall remain in full force, and the duties of their several offices shall be performed in conformity with the existing laws, until the organization of the government of the State, under this Constitution, or until the first day of the meeting of the Legislature -- That then the offices of President, Vice-President of the President's Cabinet, Foreign Ministers, Charges and agents and others repugnant to this Constitution, shall be superseded by the same, and that all others shall be holden and exercised until they expire by their own limitation, or be superseded by the authority of this Constitution or laws made in pursuance thereof.

SECTION 13. The ordinance passed by the Convention on the fourth day of July, assenting to the overtures for the annexation of Texas to the United States, shall be attached to this Constitution and form a part of the same.