The answer to your question may depend on who is the person seeking land
(military veteran,  large land company, etc); when the land is sought
(before or after 1779); and in what part of Virginia the land is sought.


See Daphne S. Gentry and John S. Salmon, Virginia Land Office Inventory
(3rd ed., 1981). A shorter summary of the Virginia Land Office records
can be found at
http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/land/rn20_landoffice.htm and a brief
explanation of the headright system can be had at
http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/local/va4_headrights.htm

Ed Redmond
Reference Specialist
Geography and Map Division
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20540-4650
(202) 707-8548
[log in to unmask]


>>> [log in to unmask] 12/16/2003 11:15:19 PM >>>

Sarah Hughes listed the steps to obtain patent, namely registration of
"rights", then entry, then surveying, and finally submission to
Jamestown or
Williamsburg where the patent was issued.

Not clear is the point in the process when corner markers and lines
were
established on the ground.

Was a tract laid out - were the corner trees chosen and the lines
blazed -
before the step of surveying described by Hughes? In this case, the
step of
surveying was simply one of measuring pre-determined lines.

And if this was the case, how was the acreage of a tract made to agree
with the
"rights"? Did a would-be patentee know enough about surveying to lay
out a
tract of area justified by his "rights"?  Did he hire the county
surveyor to
lay out the lines between the steps of registration of "rights" and
entry?

T.T. Bannister
Dept. of Biology
Univ. of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627-0211
Tel 585-275-8716
Fax 585-275-2070

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