metes and bounds

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metes and bounds

A method of describing real property by starting with some universally recognized point, usually a specified corner of a 640-acre section but sometimes a monument. The description then specifies turning in a certain direction—northwest or southeast, for example—and at a certain angle, such as 35 degrees. The description will then specify the distance one should proceed at that direction and angle for one of the property lines, before making a turn. The process continues until the entire parcel is described and one has returned to the beginning point.

Example: Beginning at the Northwest corner of Section 16, Township 19 South, Range 10 West, being the Point of Beginning (POB) thence proceed southerly along said section line for a distance of 100 feet to a point; thence turn 90 degrees 0 minutes west and proceed for a distance of 130 feet to a point; thence turn 90 degrees 0 minutes north and proceed for a distance of 100 feet to a point; thence turn 90 degrees and 9 minutes east and proceed for a distance of 130 feet to the POB, containing 0.229 acres, more or less.

References in classic literature ?

It would be bold, therefore, and possibly unjust, to venture a decisive opinion as to its merits; although it appears to have been at least a matter of doubt, whether Colonel Pyncheon's claim were not unduly stretched, in order to make it cover the small metes and bounds of Matthew Maule.

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I would gladly be moral and keep due metes and bounds, which I dearly love, and allow the most to the will of man; but I have set my heart on honesty in this chapter, and I can see nothing at last, in success or failure, than more or less of vital force supplied from the Eternal.

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With the freedom of all Somo his, he was ever a-foot over it, learning its metes and bounds and the ways of the wild creatures that inhabited its swamps and forests and that did not acknowledge his taboo.

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The master's domain was wide and complex, yet it had its metes and bounds.

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There was no sounding such a spirit, no measuring, no determining of metes and bounds, nor neatly classifying in some pigeon-hole with others of similar type.

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Cadastral Survey is made to determine the metes and bounds of all parcels within an entire municipality/city for systematic land adjudication and Internal Revenue Allotment and other purposes.

Providing Cadastral Surve Services

The topics include the history and concept of boundaries, the creation and interpretation of metes and bounds and other non-sectionalized descriptions, riparian and littoral boundaries, retracing and resurveying sectionalized lands, locating combination descriptions and conveyances, and the ethics and moral responsibilities of boundary creation and of retracements.

Brown's Boundary Control and Legal Principles, 7th Edition

If the description is in metes and bounds, trace each course and distance around the boundary from the "point of beginning" (which is the point on the property at which the description starts).