In England, about 1600, the conception of a surveyor as a man whose primary task was to measure land accurately and set boundaries was still relatively novel. The roots of the modern profession developed in the previous century when the process of enclosing the strips of old open fields with hedges or fences accelerated.
The medieval Lord of the manor distributed plots of land to villagers who shared the plowing of the open fields and grazed their livestock in public meadows or Commons. Strips in open fields were apportioned among tenants on the basis of how long it took to plow soils of varying heaviness or lightness, taking into consideration land contours and drainage requirements. Medieval measurements of area bore little resemblance to modern concepts. The word " acre " originally denoted the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plow in a day. [I believe that in Germany, the unit was the " Morgan " which was the amount of land a man could plow in the morning.]
Gradually, measurement of land in terms of work-time gave way to the use of units of linear distance and superficial area. But even the rods, perches, and poles along outer dimensions of fields differed in length from one part of England to another and according to the type of land within the same region. The use in some localities of a short rod of twelve feet for arable land, of a rod of eighteen feet for meadows, and of a long rod of twenty or twenty-two feet for woodlands and rocky terrain, demonstrates that measuring the proportionate value of land for agricultural uses predominated over mathematical calculation of the actual area.
These differences in the length of a rod survived for centuries, after the standardization of measures in the reign of King Edward I, at 16½ feet. A surveying text in 1658 discusses the problems which might arise in applying the statutory measures to lands in districts of England where the customary units were still in use. Mathematics being what it was, the exact calculation of area was impossible. The number of acres was estimated by the task-time for plowing or by the bushels or pecks of seeds sowed.
In localized rural communities, bound by tradition rather than by commerce, the lack of a system or uniformity in laying out lands was not of great concern. Custom dictated the descent of rights to particular tracts of land and there was little need for surveying in the modern sense. The basic instrument in Medieval England for surveying was the
pole
. Only in the Sixteenth Century did the compass and an instrument for sighting straight lines come into use. Land today in Germany is measured in
hectares
. Your homework for tomorrow is, "What is the relationship between an acre and a hectare?"
(01 Mar 05)
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.