In the eighteenth century, the vestries of the Church of England helped enforce many of the civil laws for which the court returned the favor by enforcing many of the church laws. The distinction between civil and ecclesiastical laws was very blurred. One of the duties which the vestry was charged to do by law was "precessioning". In theory this was to be done every four years. In theory, neutral parties walked the properties of boundaries in the presence of the owners to establish where the property lines were. Thus, the neutral parties were witnesses to the fact that the boundaries were publicly declared.
Most of the time, the exercise was an empty gesture. The property owners might not cooperate or would not be home. But the practice went on throughout the century. The precessioners made reports to the vestry but few of these have survived. What few do survive suggest that the conscientiousness and accuracy of the team doing the precessioning were not the highest. Where the reports do exist, they tell a lot about who was neighbor to whom.
One precessioner's report from the Northwest Precinct of Spotsylvania County was recorded in the vestry minutes for April 1732. The report went as follows:
"According to an order of the Vestry Dated the 30th day August 1731 We the subscribers have precession all the Lands (viz)
Col. Alex. Spotswood Refused by Reason his land was in Dispute
Col. Henry Fitzhugh Refused by Reason his land was in Dispute
Capt. Robert Slaughter ther was no bodey to shew us the land
Capt. William Bledsoe refused by Reason Col. Alex. Spotswood Joyne on him
and he being from home could not give him wordPhilimon Carter we was showde one corner by Lewis Yancey and we procession
one line and could find no furder"
Signed: Thomas Smith, Thomas Reeves
One would conclude that it was not common to mark boundaries with fences. Though in New England they might say that good fences make good neighbors, they apparently did not hold to that view in Virginia. For one thing, the tracts of land were often very large and it would take much effort to fence a piece of property. For example, Col. Spotswood's land west of Germanna, encompassing more than 60,000 acres, would have taken the better part of 100 miles of fence though that figure would have been reduced slightly by watercourses which marked portions of the boundary.
Colonial fencing used a different philosophy than we use today. Today we fence animals in. Then, they fenced animals out. If you had a garden with many succulent plants, you might put a fence around it to keep the animals out. If you wanted to keep the animals out of your cornfield, you might assign a child to watch the corn. You allowed your pigs to roam the forest and forage for themselves. They could do very well on their own. You registered clip marks for the animals so you could tell yours from the neighbors. In the fall of the year, you would round up the pigs from the forest and bring them into the orchard where they could fatten on the fallen fruit and nuts.
Property disputes and trespassing and actions arising from alleged claims of trespassing were common court cases. Without an extensive net of public roads, it was often necessary to cross another man's land. As a youth, I can remember situations of this type which were very troublesome.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.