As I state in my dictionary, after about 1650 and generally in New England and much of eastern PA and NY each county elected "fence-viewers" who for modest pay viewed and assured the court and the community of the condition of the fences.  Cattle were then fenced OUT and not in, and any landowner who did not maintain his fences could not recover for loss and destruction from actions of cattle belonging to his neighbors.      


  In the Huguenot Historical Society web site, I see references to
  fence-viewers. What is a fence-viewer?

  See a couple of the references below:

  1) "April, 1766. - "For Fence-Viewers for the New Settlement on Hudson's
  River, N. Paltz, Peleg Ransom, James Tuttle, Eleazor Cole."

  2) "Cornelis' son Jacob VerNooy 2F4 was baptized on September 11, 1709 at
  the Reformed Dutch Church in Kingston. On May 21, 1728 he married Annatje
  DuBois (b. 1703), daughter of David DuBois and Cornelia VerNooy, by whom he
  had seven children: Zara, Jacob, Cornelia, Zanuel, Josaphat, Maria, and
  Wessel. Jacob is listed as a fence-viewer of the town of Rochester in 1740 ,
  and churchmaster of the Reformed Dutch Church of Wawarsing in 1746. Jacob
  VerNooy died ca. 1780."

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