warrant with the chief surveyor of the county wherein the said lands or the greater part of them lie, who shall Locations to give a receipt for it if required. The party shall dibe precisely rect the location thereof so specially and precisely as entered in a that others may be enabled with certainty to locate made and book. where dif feren appli cations to locate the same land. Notice of time of surveying to persons out of the coun ty. other warrants on the adjacent residuum; which location shall bear date the day on which it shall be made, and shall be entered by the surveyor in a book to be kept for that purpose, in which there shall be left no blank leaves or spaces between the different entries.— Preference And if several persons shall apply with their warrants at the office of any surveyor at the same time, to make entries, they shall be preferred according to the priority of the dates of their warrants, but if such warrants be dated on the same day, the surveyor shall settle the right of priority between such persons by lot. And every surveyor shall, at the time of making entries for persons not being inhabitants of his county, appoint a time for surveying their land, and give notice thereof in writing to the persons making the same; and if on such application at his office, the surveyor shall refuse to enter such location, under pretence of a prior entry for the same lands made by some other persons, he shall have a right to demand of the said surveyor a view of the original of such prior entry in his book, How a sur- and also an attested copy of it. Any chief surveyor veyor may having a warrant for lands, and desirous to locate the locate his same within his own county, shall enter such location with the clerk of the county, who shall return the same to his next court, to be there recorded; and the said surveyor shall proceed to have the survey made as soon as may be, or within six months at farthest, by some one of his deputies, or if he hath no deputy, then by any surveyor or deputy surveyor of an adjacent county, and in case of failure his entry shall be void, and the land liable to the entry of any other perWhen and son. Every chief surveyor shall proceed with all how surveys practicable dispatch to survey all lands entered for in his office, and shall, if the party live within his county, either give him personal notice of the time at which he will attend to make such survey, or shall publish such notice by fixing an advertisement thereof on the door of the court-house of the county, on two several court days; which time, so appointed, shall be at least one month after personal notice given, or after own warrants. of located lands are to be made. Notice. Chain car sworn. the last advertisement so published; and if the surveyor shall accordingly attend and the party, or some one for him, shall fail to appear at the time, with proper chain carriers, and a person to mark the lines, if necessary, his entry shall become void, the land thereafter subject to the entry of any other person, and the surveyor shall return him the warrant, which may, notwithstanding, be located anew upon any other waste or unappropriated lands, or again upon the same lands where it hath not in the mean time been entered for by another person. Where the chief surveyor doth not mean to survey himself he shall immediately after the entry made, direct a deputy surveyor to perform the duty, who shall proceed as is before directed in the case of the chief surveyor. The persons employed to carry the chain on any survey shall be sworn by the riers to be surveyor, whether principal or deputy, to measure justly and exactly to the best of their abilities, and to deliver a true account thereof to such surveyor, and shall be paid for their trouble by the party for whom the survey is made. The surveyor, at the time of ma- Surveys to king the survey, shall not leave any ope: lines, but be closed, shall see the same bounded plainly by marked trees, lines marked, and of except where a water course or ancient marked line proportion. shall be the boundary, and shall make the breadth of ed length each survey at least one third of its length in part, unless where such breadth shall be restrained on Exception. both sides by mountains unfit for cultivation, by water courses, or the bounds of lands before appropriated.— He shall, as soon as it can conveniently be done, and A plat and within three months at farthest after making the sur- certificate to vey, deliver to his employer or his order, a fair and be delivered true plat and certificate of such survey, the quantity months, and contained, the hundred, (where hundreds are establish- warrant reed in the county wherein it lies) the courses and de- delivered. scriptions of the several boundaries, natural and artificial, ancient and new, expressing the proper names of such natural boundaries where they have any, and the name of every person whose former lines made a boundary; and also the nature of the warrant and rights on which such survey was made, and shall at the same Provided time re-deliver the said warrant to the party. The said the fees be surveyor may nevertheless detain the said certificates paid. and warrants until the paymeut of his fees. plats and certificates shall be examined and tried by examined every The said and breadth. within three The plats, &c. to be and entered the said principal surveyor whether truly made and of principal legally proportioned as to length and breadth, and surveyor. the court. clerk and surveyor of the same county. shall be entered within three months at farthest, after the survey is made, in a book well bound, to be provided by the court of his county, at the county charge; and he shall, in the month of July every year, return Lists of all to the president and professors of William and Mary College, and also to the clerk's office of his county surveys to be annually court, a true list of all surveys made by him or his dereturned to paties in the preceding twelve months, with the names, the college and clerk of of the persons for whom they were respectively made, and the quantities contained in each, there to be recordNone to be ed by such clerk; and no person shall hereafter hold the offices of clerk of a county court and surveyor of a county, nor shall a deputy in either office act as deputy or chief in the other. Any surveyor, whether prinHow survey. cipal or deputy, failing in any of the duties aforesaid, ors may be punished for shall be liable to be indicted in the general court and neglect. punished by amercement or deprivation of his office, and incapacity to take it again, at the discretion of a jury; and shall moreover be liable to any party injured for all damages he may sustain by such failure. EveSurveyor's ry county court shall once in every year, and oftener office to be if they see cause, appoint two or more capable persons annually into examine the books of entries and surveys in possesspected. sion of their chief surveyor, and to report in what condition and order the same are kept; and on his death or removal shall have power to take the same into their possession, and deliver them to the succeeding chief No plat to be delivered but to the surveyor. II. And for preventing hasty and surreptitious grants, and avoiding controversies and expensive law owner with suits: Be it enacted, That no surveyor shall, at any in a year; ex- time within twelve months after the survey made, issue cept to a ca- or deliver any certificate, copy, or plat of land by him certificate of surveyed, except only to the person or persons for a caveat cn- whom the same was surveyed, or to his, her, or their veat or upon tered. order, unless a caveat shall have been entered against a grant to the person claiming under such survey, to be proved by an authentic certificate of such caveat from the clerk of the general court produced to the surveyor; and if any surveyor shall presume to issue any certificate, copy or plat as aforesaid, to any other than the person or persons entitled thereto, every surveyor so of fending shall forfeit and pay to the party injured, his or her legal representatives or assigns, thirty pounds for every hundred acres of land contained in the survey whereof a certificate, copy, or plat shall be so issued, or shall be liable to the action of the party injured at the common law for his or her damages, at the election of the party. Penalty. III. And for declaring what fees a surveyor shall be entitled to, Be it enacted, 'That every surveyor shall be Surveyor's entitled to receive the following fees, for the services fees in to hereinafter mentioned, to be paid by the person em- bacco.j ploying him, and no other fees whatsoever, that is to say: For every survey by him plainly bounded as the law directs, and for a plat of such survey after the delivery of such plat, where the survey shall not exceed four hundred acres of land, two hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco; for every hundred acres contained in one survey above four hundred, twelve pounds of tobacco; for surveying a lot in a town, twenty pounds of tobacco; and where the surveyor shall be stopped or hindered from finishing a survey by him begun, to be paid by the party who required the survey to be made, one hundred and twenty-five pounds of tobacco; for running a dividing line, one hundred pounds of tobacco; for surveying an acre of land for a mill, fifty pounds of tobacco; for every survey of land formerly patented, and which shall be required to be surveyed, and for a plat thereof delivered as aforesaid, the same fee as for land not before surveyed; and where a survey shall be made of any lands which are to be added to other lands, in an inclusive patent, the surveyor shall not be paid a second fee for the land first surveyed, but shall only receive what the survey of the additional land shall amount to; and where any surveys have been actually made of several parcels of land adjoining and several plats delivered, if the party shall desire one inclusive plat thereof, the surveyor shall make out such plat for fifty pounds of tobacco; for running a dividing line between any county or parish, to be paid by such respective counties or parishes in proportion to the number of tythables, if ten miles or under, five hundred pounds of tobacco; and for every mile above ten, fifteen pounds of tobacco; for receiving a warrant of survey and giving a receipt therefor, eight pounds of tobacco; for recording a certificate from the commissioners of any district of a claim to land allowed by them, to be paid by the May be dis. charged in money at a penny halfpenny, per pound. Table of fees to be set np in office un der penalty. ing. claimant, eight pounds of tobacco; for making an entry for land or for a copy thereof, eight pounds of tobacco; for a copy of a plat of land or of a certificate of survey twelve pounds of tobacco. IV. And be it further enacted, That all persons who are now chargeable with any surveyor's fees, for services under the act of assembly, intituled. “An act for regulating the fees of the register, of the land-office, and for other purposes," or who shall hereafter become chargeable with any tobacco for any of the services mentioned in this act, shall, at their election, discharge the same either in transfer tobacco notes or in specie at the rate of twelve shillings and six pence for every hundred pounds of gross tobacco. V. And be it further enacted, That the surveyor of shall hereafter cause to be set up in some every county public place in his office, and there constantly kept, a fair table of his fees hereinbefore mentioned, on pain of forfeiting one hundred pounds; which penalty shall Penalty for be to the person or persons who shall inform or sue for overcharg- the same. And if any surveyor who now is or shall hereafter become entitled to fees under this or the said recited act, shall ask or demand of any person whatsoever more than twelve shillings and sixpence per hundred for such tobacco fees, or shall ask or demand larger fees than are allowed by this act, every person so offending shall forfeit and pay ten times the amount of the fees so charged, to the party or parties injured. VI. And be it further enacted, That every surveyor of lands shall hereafter be resident in the county whereof he is surveyor, during the time he shall continne in office, under the penalty of forfeiting two hundred pounds current money for every month he shall reside out of the same, unless detained by such business as the court of the county shall judge reasonable, one moiety of which shall be to the commonwealth for the better support of this government and the contingent charges thereof, and the other moiety to the informer. How penal. VII. And be it further enacted, That all the several ties may be penalties and forfeitures by this act laid, given, or inflicted, shall and may be recovered with costs, by ace tion of debt or information, in any court of record Repeal of former acts. within this commonwealth wherein such peualty shall Snrveyors to be resi dent in their County un der a monthly penalty. recovered. |