Metes And Bounds

[sam strahan]

somebody quick please define metes and then define bounds in a legal description. one is distance one is direction. glad to be here.

 

[Charlotte Dixon]

We have metes and bounds descriptions in Delaware and this originated in colonial America.

This method idenifies property by delineating its boundaries in terms of directions and distances. i.e. .....Starting from a nail on the north side of a cherry tree, 23 degrees 22 minutes from the south side of a large field stone......Each boundary line is described in succession using a compass bearing and distance until the parcel is closed. It really gets confusing when we get in to farm land which could be described as: 16 Rods from the northerly corner of C.R. 620 and C.R. 611. Fathoms is another term.

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition:

Metes and bounds. The boundary lines of land, with their terminal points and angles. A way of describing land by listing the compass directions and distances of boundaries. It is often used in connection with the Government Survey System.

Surveying: Theory and Practice, Fifth Edition:
--In describing a tract surveyed in this manner the lengths and bearings of the several courses are given in order, and the objects marking the corners are described; if any boundary follows some prominent feature of the terrain, the fact is stated; and the calculated area of the tract is given. ---Within the limits of the precision of the original survey, it is possible to relocate the boundaries of a tract if its description by metes and bounds is available, provided at least one of the original corners can be identified and the true direction of one of the boundaries can be determined.

The rectangular system developed by the Government Land Office, now Bureau of Land Management, is very common in the western USA. Parts of Texas still use the old Spanish system that began when it belonged to Spain. Some parts of the eastern USA still have the old original system from the 1600-1700s. Sure must be fun for surveyors to find that tree that George Washington cut down to establish a property's lot corner!

 

[Frank Bertrand]

in 1523 the publication "The Art of Husbandry" the surveyor (one who oversees the lord's buttes and bounds) was charged with keeping a eye or the feudal lord's holdings. Buttes, the term used when one landowner buttes up or metes another's land came into origin is the what I have learned, thus the term originated then.


In colonial times surveyors ranked right up there with the elite as one couldn't devlop the US without a legal measuring system to be agreed on by all. George Washington got rich by surveying and knew the importance of a valid system. In his first address to Congress, Washington placed a valid land measurement system after national defense and a national currency.

As for the Western lands, the inital base measurement that was marked in 1785 by the first Geographer of the US, one Thomas Huchins, and started the "Point of Begining" that is about 1000 feet south of where Pennsylvania route 68 changes into Ohio Route 38. There is a marker there and all Western land measurement references back to this point.

I got interested in how all these measurements started when I researched a right of way back to 1790 when most major roads in the colonies were still called King's highways and maintained by road taxes. Local highway districts have maps that reference these main thorofares that usually turned into US routes.

If interested, read, "Measuring America" by Andro Linklater, and watch those chains, links, rods!!!

 

[David S. Roberson]

Mete is a verb meaning "to measure". Bounds refers to a boundary.

 

[Restrain]

In Texas, we have to deal with Land Grant Surveys (irregular shaped of several thousand acres), Spanish Land Grants (BIG irregular shape - many thousand acres) and Surveys out of the Spanish Land Grants. I read one original survey description (The surveys are the original granted tract given to early settlers - like my family) where the person got on a horse at the county court house and rode east at a steady canter for 30 minutes to a tree with a nail in the fork of a creek. That was the beginning point of the original land grant survey. Thank goodness it's been better defined since then. But we're still finding "voids", that is, land that has never been properly surveyed and claimed that is between Land Grant Surveys. As surveying has become more exact, these "voids" are being found. Generally, they're like 10 feet wide and run along a property line, so it's not of much use of itself, but can be claimed and added to the adjacent property.

Roger

 

[Terry Russell]

It is basically distance (metes) and vectors (bounds) if you run across something like this:

Sec 8 sw 1/4, nw 1/4, s 1/2 sec 9, nw 1/4 ne 1/4 n 1/2, nw 1/4 Sec 7 sw 1/4 by 40 feet per and par, reciprocal.

It is likely to be a railroad right-of way. Or something similar.

tr

 

[lindasheets]

Wow! Thank you Frank for some interesting background and history!!! Fascinating!

 

[sam strahan]

metes= direction and bounds=distance n30 deg. etc 230' i have delt with metes and bounds all my life in my dads title company. in fact my grandfather was a surveyor. i should have known the answer. i just had a test question on my exam prep that asked what bounds meant. the answer was distance. oh by the way i passed the texas appraiser licence exam yesterday. it took me one 1 1/2 hours and had a lot of questions i have never seen before. glad to be here. sam

 

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

Congratulations!!!