Land dominated Island politics for over a century. In 1767 the British government granted the Island in 67 lots to 100 proprietors. Settlement proceeded slowly, marked by tenants' grievances about leases, high rents and eviction. Gradually leasehold tenures disappeared: some proprietors sold farms to their tenants, others sold estates to the government, willingly under an 1853 law or by compulsion after 1875. Sporadically after 1830 land disputes led to rent strikes, riots and arson. Brighton Powder Magazine was built in 1866, when troops were stationed here to quash the Tenant League.