, there were many problems that
arose in seventeenth-century Virginia over surveys and the
identification of boundaries. Surveyors usually took the edge of a
stream, either a river or creek, as the base line of the survey and then
ran the boundaries for a specified distance along a line at right angle
to the base. Terminal points were laid out and witnessed by neighboring
owners with some distinguishing mark as a large stone or a tree with
three or four chops. In 1679 a question was called to the attention of
the Assembly as to the extent of the owner's rights along the water's
edge. The case arose over the complaint of Robert Liny that part of his
patent along the river had been cleared for fishing but the exercise of
his fishing rights had been hampered by trespassing individuals who
dragged their seines upon the river's edge, claiming that "The water was
the kings majesties ... and therefore equally free to all his majesties
subjects to fish in and hale their sceanes on shore...." In answer to
this complaint, the Assembly declared that the rights of the patent
holder extended into the stream as far as the low water mark, and any
person fishing or seining without permission within these bounds was
guilty of trespass.

More frequently problems arose as a result of defective surveys either
in the first line along the edge of the stream or in a second and third
line of patents that were laid out when all land along the streams had
been occupied. Some of the surveys were inaccurate because of the lack
of graduation on the compass; others were distorted by careless
surveyors selecting convenient terminal points such as a tree, a road,
or another stream and ignoring the accurate measurement of the line. As
early as 1623/24, the Assembly ordered that individual land dividends be
surveyed and the bounds recorded; and in case serious disputes arose
over conflicting boundaries, appeal could be made to the Governor and
Council. In an effort to prevent the holder of patents from having to
pay for more than one survey of the same grant, the Assembly in 1642/43
stated that surveys made by commissioned surveyors were considered valid
and bestowed full right of ownership without the necessity and expense
of new surveys. Such a provision did not, however, resolve the problem
that arose over errors made by commissioned surveyors, errors that may
have led a person in good faith to construct buildings on a plot that
was later determined