The procedure for obtaining land from the Northern Neck proprietor was a little different than obtaining land from the Crown. The Northern Neck proprietor was anxious to sell land, so he set up agents who were scattered around the Northern Neck. If you wanted to buy land, first you had to find some land that no one else owned. You took a tentative description of this to one of the agents and suggested there was a specific piece of vacant land. You paid a fee, called the composition, to the agent and he wrote a warrant which directed a specific surveyor to mark the property. The buyer then arranged for the survey of the property.
Once the survey was completed, it and the warrant were returned to the Proprietor's office, where the agent gave title in fee simple through an instrument called a grant. In addition to the initial composition fee (the purchase price), the buyer agreed to pay an annual quit rent at the rate of one shilling per 50 acres. The agent gave the buyer an original parchment of the grant and recorded the sale in his book. The warrant, survey, and any accompanying papers were filed in the office of the proprietor. These have been preserved.
Very often these latter papers have information of a genealogical nature. The warrant was negotiable, as was the survey. They were often sold or given away. As evidence of this, information was added to the warrant and survey. It was also the practice to record the names of the men in the survey party, such as the chain carriers (two), who moved the surveyor's chain of iron links. Sometimes there was a pilot who knew where the line should be and he guided the survey party. Other men might be markers. Very often the man having the survey done would get relatives to carry the chains, especially brothers-in-law. But they could be anyone.
Peggy Shomo Joyner went to the Library of Virginia where the Warrants and Surveys were being kept and compiled, by counties, lists of these records. These were published, I believe, as four books, though I have only two.
I give the summary of a warrant and survey:
Mathias Rouse, 4 Oct 1750 [warrant date] - 5 Dec 1750 [survey date];
33 acres on fork of Robinson R., "a hillside near the old German Church."
adjacent William Carpenter, dec'd, John Carpenter, George Utz.
CC [chain carriers] John Carpenter & Nicholas Yager.
Surveyor: Philip Clayton.
In this case, I do not think the chain carriers were related. The mention of the "old German Church" is interesting. It refers to the first log cabin used before the present church was built. It stood just to the north of Hebron Church.
(04 Jul 02)
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