Land Terms



Land Description:
S1/2 NW1/4 S14 T19N R10E.  This is a description of land.  It is read
from back to front, first finding on a map the Range, then Township,
then Section. This piece of land would be the South 1/2 of the
Northwest 1/4 part of Section number 14 in a specific Township.

Land Measures:
1. length: one mile equals 5280 feet, eighty chains, 320 rods, or
1760 yards. One rod equals 5.50 years, 16.5 feet or 25 links

2. Area: one square mile equals 640 acres or 102,400 square rods.
One acre equals 4840 square yards or 43,500 square feet. One
square rod equals 30.25 square yards, or .006 of a square acre.

Yard Land:
1. A quantify of land which varies from fifteen to forty acres. In some
places a quarter of an acre was called a yard of land.
2. a barn or pen for animals
3. a farmyard

Land Patent: the document which states the settler had a permanent
claim and was the first purchaser of a piece of land.

Land Right: the legal obligations which are attached to ownership of
land.

Land Warrant: a certificate issued by a land office which entitled the
possessor to a certain number of acres of land. The certificate was
negotiable.

Military warrant: a document issued by the land office requesting
that land be set aside for a veteran entitled to it for his military
service. The land was located in Ohio and Kentucky and
eligibility for its ownership was based upon the veteran's military
certificate.

Military Certificate: a document stating that a person's proof of
military service had been presented to the proper authorities and,
therefore, he was eligible for a specific amount of land as
compensation. There was only one claim to this type of land
available to each person.

Military land: public land which was reserved for Revolutionary or
War of 1812 soldiers to receive as part of their compensation for
service.

Bounty Land (Federal): shortly after the beginning of the
Revolutionary War the Continental Congress promised land to
those who would serve in the Continental Army. The acreage
of land so promised was on a sliding scale based on rank.
For example, an enlisted man was to receive 100 acres, while
a major general was to have 1,000 acres.

Bounty land (State): in some states the promise of issuing land
for service in the Revolutionary War was far more liberal than that
of the federal government which led many veterans to trade bounty
land warrants for state warrants.

Patriotic service: during the Revolutionary War these persons did
not serve on the field of battle, but served as wagoners, furnished
ammunition or supplies and therefore were eligible for pensions.
Many services to the Continental Army are now a part of the regular
army; chaplains, physicians, veterinarians, paymasters,
quartermasters, etc.

Bondsman: a person, sometimes referred to as a surety, who pledges
a sum of money as bond for another.

"bond" servant: an indentured servant

Bondman:
1. male slave
2. a man who had been bound into service without wages being paid
3. a tenant who was not free, a villein.

Bondwoman: a female slave

Bondmaid: a female who has been bound into service with no wages
paid/a female slave.

Marriage Bond: in Colonial days, this was a sum of money promised,
usually by the parents or a close relative of a young couple, to the
governor of the state. This was asked to ensure that there was no
reason, moral or legal, for the couple not to marry and that they
would not become charity cases. Money did not actually change
hands, but could be called for if the marriage did not fulfill the
requirements.

Marriage register: a book which lists marriage licenses issued and,
frequently, marriage returns. This book is kept at a clerk's office in
the courthouse.

Marriage return: notation by a minister which states on which date he
married a couple.

Nephew:
1. the male child of a person's brother or sister
2. sometimes in old documents can refer to other relatives: grandson,
cousin, etc.
3. a descendant

Neeveye:  descendants

Nee: born. This word is used after a married woman's surname to
indicate her maiden name, e.g., Mrs. Marian Johnson, nee Baker.

New mother: a Colonial term for a stepmother.

Overseer:
1. A Colonial official appointed to do one of any number of supervisory
jobs, a road supervisor
2. an officer of the Quaker church who had the duties of the business
affairs of the meeting, preparing answers to queries, giving advice to
members and preventing the introduction of unnecessary matters
and premature complaints into meetings for business and discipline
3. Ordnance office in charge of construction. Sometimes he is called a
superintendent
4. A person in charge of work on a plantation
5. An overlooker frequently appointed in wills. Sometimes the executor
was called an overseer
6. a man in the pillory

Overseer of the poor: in Colonial days the person appointed to this post
purchased the materials to be used in work done by the unemployed.
He also dispensed aid to the poor.

Overseer of the road: a person appointed to maintain a specified
stretch of road. He obtained workers to care for the road from the
people who lived along it and used the road most frequently.





This page updated on February 1, 2009




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