Metes and Bounds

“Metes and bounds” is one of the oldest systems of describing land. Metes and bounds descriptions formed part of land descriptions in the original 13 colonies. Importantly, metes and bounds descriptions continue to be used, especially for tracts of land in the original 13 colonies, and for divisions of larger tracts in most states. The metes and bounds method uses markers and directions to determine the location and boundaries of a given piece of land. To borrow from a surveyor’s text:

Thus in the early days a piece of land would be described by starting at a point indicated by a certain tree, describing the tree, or by a certain artificial monument, then proceeding in a certain direction to another monument, and so on until the point of beginning. In this description would be found: first, a reference to monuments, natural or artificial; second, the distance traversed in going from monument to monument; third, the direction; and fourth, the quantity of land thus enclosed. These four were known as (1) monuments, natural and artificial, (2) measures, (3) courses, (4) quantity, and are sometimes referred to as the four “calls.”^[1]

So, a metes and bounds legal description might look something like the following:

Commencing at the intersection of the west line of Hampton  Road and the north line of Thompson Lane; thence west 200 feet along the north line of Thompson Lane; thence north 15° east to the center thread of buckskin Creek, being 175 feet more or less; thence easterly along the center line of said creek to its intersection with the west line of Hampton Road, being 220 feet more or less; thence southerly along the west line of Hampton Road to the point of beginning, being 160 feet more or less.

[1] Bays, Alfred W. The Law of Property including Estates and Wills, with Questions, Problems and Forms. 2nd ed. Chicago: Callaghan, 1922. 189. Print