The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1784-08-16 00:00:00, page 1

The following Draught of an Ordinance
for ascertaining the mode of locating and
difpfog of Lands in the Western
Territory, is printed for publick in
fpeflion.
BE it ordained by the United States in
Congress assembled, That the territory
ceded by individual states to the United
States, when the fame shall have been pur
chased of the Indian inhabitants, and laid
off into states, Ihall be disposed of in the following
manner :—lt Ihall be divided into hundreds of ten
geographical miles square, each mile containing 6086
feet, and four-tenths of a foot, by lines to be run and
marked due north and louth, and others crossing these
at right angles, the firft of which lines, each way, Ihall
be at ten miles distance from one of the corners of
the state within which they shall be. But if the In
dian purchase fliall not have included any one of the
corners of the state, the lines shall then be run at the
termination of integral miles, as measured fiom some
one of the corners, but shall be extended, by actual
marks, only so far as the purehafe extends. These
hundreds shall be subdivided into lots of one mile
square each, or 850 acres and four tenths of an acre,
by marked lines running in like manner due north and
south, and others eroding these at right angles.
For laying off the said territory, surveyors shall be
appointed by Congress, or the Committee of the
States, who shall proceed forthwith, under the direc
tion of the register hereafter to be mentioned, to di
vide the fame into hundreds, by lines in rhe directi
ons, and at the intervals before-mentioned ; which
lines shall be measured with a chain, shall be plainly
marked by chaps or marks on the trees, and shall be
exactly described on a plat, whereon dial! be noted,
at their proper diftai ces, all watercourses, mountains,
and other remarkable and permanent things, over or
near which such lines shall pass.
The hundreds being laid off and marked, nine of
them shall be assigned as a diihid to each furveyar,
who shall then proceed to divide each hundred of his
district into lots as before directed, beginning with the
hundreds moll in demand, and measuring, marking
and platting, the said dividing lines thereof in the
manner before directed for the hundreds; save only
that the lines of tl e lots shall be distinguished by a
single mark on each tree, and those of the hundreds
by three marks. And that the said lots may be ca
pable of more accurate defciiption and distinction
from each other, thole in every hundred ihall be de
signated by the numbers in their order from 1 to 100,
beginning at the northwestern lot of the hundred, and
applying the numbers front 1 to 10, to the lots of
the firft row from weft to east fuccellively ; those from
11 to 20, to the lots of the fecund row from weft to
east, and so on. The surveyors shall pay due and
constant attention to the variation of the magnetick
meridian, and shall run and note all lines by the true
meridian, certifying with every plat what was the va
riation at the time of running the lines thereon noted.
A register Ihall be appointed by Congress, for each'
of the states within which the said territory shall lie,
who Hull keep his office within the said state, be re
sident at it himfelf, and provide a seal for authenti
cating its ads. To him returns shall be made, by
the several surveyors, on the last days of March and
August in every year, of the plats of all lines mea
sured and marked by them in the preceding half year,
to be by him collated, and reduced into a general map
of the whole state for which he ads. He fliall annu
ally, to wit, on the firft Monday in November of eve
ry year, deliver, or cause to be delivered, to the fe l
cretary of Congress, a copy of such portions of the
said general map as fliall have been formed, or fur
ther filled up, during the preceding year; retaining
one in his own office for the use thereof. He shall
have power to suspend any surveyor for negligence
or malverfation, making report thereof to Congress,
or a Committee of the States, that they may direst a
proper enquiry.
Each register fliall cause to be printed, under such
devices, difficult of imitation, as he shall think belt,
NEW-JERSEY GAZETTE.
[Vol. VIL]
TRENT ON: Printed by ISAAC COLLINS, Printer to the State.
MON DA Y, August 16, 1784.
warrants, each of which fliall give right to one
lot of a mile square, described as before directed :—
And other warrants for each of the said states,
which fliall give right, each of them, to one of the
hundreds of ten miles square as before described.—
These warrants fliall have blanks for names and dates ;
fliall be numbered and signed by the register; sealed
with the seal of his office; and fliall be cut with in
dentures from a book, the margin of which shall be
numbered in correspondence with the warrant cut
therefrom, and fliall be preserved in the office as a
further check. The said warrants fliall be deposited
in the treafcry of the United States, and the trea
surer thereon debited with them. From thence they
fliall be sent in such numbers as the register issuing
them fliall direst, to the commiffioncr of the loan-of
fice for the United States in each of the states within
the union, the treasurer countersigning them on part
ing therewith, and having a credit duly entered in his
own account with the United States, and a debit
against the loan-officer to whom they are sent.
Any person chufing to become a purchaser of lands
within the said territory, and paying to the treasurer
or loan-officer, the sum of dollars, shall receive
in lieu thereof, one of the said smaller warrants enti
tling him to a lot, paying dollars, fliall receive
in lieu thereof one of the laid larger warrants, entitling
him to a whole hundred within the state from which
the warrant issued; the treasurer or loan-officer in
ferring the name of the purchaser in the proper blank,
filling up the date, and attesting the warrant by his
own fubfeription. Loan-office certificates reduced to
their specie value by the scale of depreciation, or cer
tificates of liquidated debts of the United States, shall
be receivable for the said warrants in lieu of money ;
and evidences of military rights to lands, herein after
to be described, shall be receivable inßead of the price
itfelf of so much land. I hefe warrants fliall pass as
lands, by defeent or devise, but not by assignment nor
by survivorship.
The owner of any warrant proceeding to locate
the fame, fliall deliver it to the surveyor of the dif
trid, wherein his location is to be, describing to him
the particular lot on which he places it, or the hun
dred, if it be a warrant for a hundred, by a designa
tion of some point, either natural or artificial, within
the said lot or hundred, so singular and certain as may
be adapted to no other lot or hundred; or by refe
rence to the position of the hundred, or number of
the lot, which description the surveyor shall immedi
ately enter in a bock well bound, with the date of the
entry, describing the warrant located thereon by its
number, date, signatures and name of the original
owner, and leaving no blank fpa.ee or leaf between
that and the preceding entry, nor any maigin by its
fide. If the location be made before the lot or hun
dred be yet laid off by lines actually run and marked,
the surveyor fliall retain the warrant in his hands un
til the hundred, if it be for a hundred, or until all the
lots of the hundred, if it be for a lot, shall be actual
ly laid off by marked lines ; and then, or at the time
of the entry, if the lines were marked before the en
try was made, having fatisfied himfelf by proper evi
dence, or by his own infpedion or examination, on
what particular lot, or on what hundred, the location
is, and that there has been no previous location on
the fame, he fliall give to the party a certificate, de
scribing the lot or hundred so specially as that it may
be known from all others, by particular marks or
circumstances, natural or artificial, by fating the or
der or position of the hundred, relatively to the boun
daries of the Rate, and fpecifying the lot by its num
ber; with which certificate he fliall return the war
rant also to the party. These being delivered to the
register, and the warrant examined and found genu
ine by him, he fliall give a receipt for the fame, and
in due time proceed to execute a grant of the land in
the following form :—" A. B. register of the land
office of the United States, within the state of
to all to whom these presents fliall come, greeting :—
Know ye, that for good confederation, there is granted
by the United States of America, unto C. D. a cer
tain lot [or hundred of land, as the case shall be, de
scribing it from the certificate] within the said Rate
of to have and to hold the said lot [or
THE
hundred] of land, with its appurtenances, to him the
said C. D. and his heirs forever. In witness where
of, the said A. B. register of the land-office of the
said state, hath hereunto set his hand, and caused the
seal of his office to be affixed, this day of
in the year and of the independence of the
United States the ." Which grant fliall be
entered of record, at full length, in good well bound
books to be provided for that purpose, at the expense
of the United States, and kept by the register; and
being so entered, shall be certified to have been regis
tered, and then be delivered to the party or his or
der. Different lots, adjoining fide by fide within the
fame hundred, may be included and puffed by the
fame grant; but serrate lots, and lots in different
hundreds, as also different hundreds, Ih^l be palled
by different grants. No fractions of a lot shall be
granted, unless where such fractions are occasioned
by the boundary of the state, or of the Indian con
veyance. Until a temporary government fnall be efta
blilhed in any state according to the resolutions of
Congress of April 1784, the lands therein fliall
pass in defeent and dower, according to the customs
known in the common law, by the name of gavelkind
and shall be transferable by deed or will proved by
two witnesses. But so soon as a temporary govern
ment fliall be so established, they shall become fubjed
to the laws of the state, and shall never after, in any
case, revert to the United States. Where a grant
shall be made out to the heir or devifee of the person
in whose name the warrant was originally issued, he
shall be named in the said grant as heir or devifee.
For preventing hasty and surreptitious titles, the
register shall execute no grant for lands until the war
rant and certificate delivered him for the fame fliall
have remained in his office months; at any time
within which period, any person claiming the fame
lands under a prior location, fliall be at liberty to
enter a caveat, with the register, against the execu
tion of any grant to the other, setting forth in the en
try a copy of the location under which himfelf claims.
The register fliall thereupon iftue a summons, reciting
the entry made with him, and calling the defendant
to appear, at a certain time and place, in defence of
his right ; which summons being served, and the par
ties appearing, he shall refer the decision to three ar
bitrators to be chosen by them, or if they cannot
agree, then to three intelligent, honest and indif
ferent persons, to be named by himfelf; which arbi
trators being firft sworn to do justice between the par
ties according to the best of their knowledge and abi
lities by the register, who is hereby authorized to
administer such oath, fliall proceed thereon at such
times and places as they shall appoint, giving notice
thereof to the parties, and their award being ren
dered, the register fliall execute a grant to the plain
tiff or defendant, conformably therewith. The par
ty whole location is annulled, shall be authorized to
receive again his warrant, and to locate it on other
lands, if the defendant, being summoned, or the
plaintiff fails to appear by himfelf or another before
the legiiler on the day appointed, the register may
give a further day, or in his diferetion may proceed
on the evidence before him to execute a grant to the
party having the right. If the defendant fails to ap
pear, and there be no fufficient proof that the sum
mons has been served, the register fliall issue a new
summons, unless it fliall be proved that he hath been
fought at the usual place of his dwelling, and hath
not been found, in which case the summons shall be
advertised three times in some gazette of the state
wherein he then resides, or last was known to reside,
giving a new day of appearance, which shall not be'
within less than months after the date of the
third publication, and on his failing to appear at that
day, the register fliall proceed to 'decifion. But in
case of a decision against the defendant, where there
was no actual service of the summons, he shall be al
lowed, at any time within one year after such decisi
on, a re-healing before arbitrators to be appointed
and qualified as directed in the case of an appearance;
but on such le-hearing the mere right alone shall be
tried.
The register, together with the map before direct
ed to be delivered annually to the Secretary of Con-
[Numb. 327.]