How were property lines known / created back in the old days when huge lots of land were owned / claimed?
In: 89
Well it depends on which old days you’re referring to. Probably the most ancient way of establishing borders is via bodies of water, followed some centuries later by building walls. Eventually Pythagoras came along and discovered triangulation which allowed for accurate cartography. You can use the tops of two mountain peaks and a sextant to figure out where you are pretty accurately.
North American here.
I have a deed that can answer this. Based on 189X. I have the actual deed, in a safety deposit box. Can’t access it now but can describe it in general.
It surveyed based on stuff like
>”All lands within the perimeter described by [starting point landmark], and then proceeding due north to the giant stump for AA chains to YY. Then due west to the boulder for BB chains at ZZ, then….
A chain is 66 feet.
Massively inaccurate, but enough to describe the property at the time. It’s a super cool document.
They often got a lot of things wrong. A hilarious example is the US/Canadian border that was supposed to go along the 49th parallel except a bit in Minnesota where the surveyor got turned around a smidge and circled a lake. Their error persists to this day.
The most accurate way to know how land was divided in the old days is to look at old deeds. These define the boundaries of ownership, and the descriptions are precise enough that land surveyors can still find those boundaries today, even if the original markers are gone. Thus, the simplification in the words you quoted.
For example, here’s a deed for part of my land (I’m using this description because it’s a short one, and because the land in question changed ownership at some point in the past, so it had to be resurveyed to clarify the boundaries):
>That certain Tract or Parcel of land situate in the County of [my county], State of [my state], being a part of two parcels conveyed to James Blaine from Louis J. Rodriguez by deed dated 25th November, 1974, and more particularly described as follows:
>Beginning at a point on the Northwesterly side of [road name] Road, said point being the Southwesterly corner of lands now or formerly of Joseph J. Kramer, Jr; thence along the Northeasterly line of said Kramer land North 37 degrees 29 minutes 01 seconds West, 306.83 feet to a point, North 22 degrees 13 minutes 17 seconds West, 362.43 feet to a point, which is also a corner of lands now or formerly of the Trustees of the [university]; thence along the Westerly line of said Trustees’ land, South 61 degrees 41 minutes 27 seconds West, 77.05 feet to a point at the Southeasterly corner of lands now or formerly of Joseph J. Kramer, Jr.; thence along the Southeasterly line of said Kramer land, South 37 degrees 28 minutes 06 seconds East, 234.24 feet to a point; thence along the Northeasterly side of said [road name] Road, North 62 degrees 31 minutes 54 seconds East, 109.42 feet to the point of beginning.
If you look at that description a few times, you’ll get a picture of the shape of this little piece of land. If you’ve got a good map for reference, you should be able to spot the boundaries of my property on that map.
In the eastern US there are tuns of old stone walls usually 2-3 feet high that go on for miles through the woods. I assume they are old property lines, though I am no expert.
Sometiles they used (among other things) [pain](https://daily.jstor.org/beating-the-bounds/) as a sort of mnemonic.
I remember reading somewhere that they would also outright slap kids but could not find a decent source.
Just to add to the discussion – when I was about 13 my Dad took me out in some fields near our house with a compass that had a sight line on it (kind of a flip up thing with a thread in it). We created a map of the area by creating triangles sighted onto trees, hilltops, etc. You’d sight the direction of a tree on a hill … mark it on the map … then sight another landmark and measure the angle between the two. Then you’d pace to the first landmark, and repeat the process to landmark two and your original starting place. We created a pretty good map just with the compass and our feet!
the same way they are today. Surveyors using expensive equipment. Shockingly the basic method by which the equipment works hasn’t changed in 500 ish years. You just start with 2 known spots, and an unknown spot. take the angles from both known spots to the unknown spot relative to north and a down, then use the distance between the 2 known spots and some trig to work out the location of the 3rd spot. Place a metal plate you can identify later, and pound it in at the 3rd spot. You now know 3 spots, repeat for any number of points you want to add.
Future surveyors can use your metal plate as a reference for their surveying (one of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survey_marker).
All that has really changed is the precision of the angle and distance finders (using lasers and mirrors instead of telescopes and flames). And also the addition of GPS, which isnt used as much as you would think, but is used some.
Going back a bit further than you may mean, Proverbs 22:28:
“[Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors.](https://biblehub.com/niv/proverbs/22.htm)”
Theological arguments aside, at least in some cases, they used rocks. Which you apparently weren’t supposed to move because, well, that’d be a big deal.
In Land by Simon Winchester, it is posited that, in the early days of farming, natural field boundaries were formed at the edges of the tilled land, so each farmer knew where their field ended and the neighbour’s began. T’was a simpler time.
Also chimes with the Proverbs quote commented elsewhere on the post.
Latest Answers