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MD Survey west of Ft Cumberland 1787 MilitaryLots1

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Military Lots west of Fort Cumberland
horized by an Act as set forth in the book of the Laws of Maryland, Chapter XLIV, Volume 204, Page 350 and passed December 23, 1788, to dispose of the reserved lands westward of Fort Cumberland, in Washington County, and to fulfill the engagements made by this State to the officers and soldiers of the Maryland line in the service of the United States

Map copied and compiled by Hezekiah Veatch 1788 from original drawings, notes and Certificates of Survey by Francis Deakins 1787 showing the locations of 4,165 50-acre lots

Colonel Deakins, one of General Washington’s army staffers, did not survey these lots all by himself. He had 10 Deputy Surveyors with survey crews to help him survey, calculate them and mark the lines. Then he and his Deputies wrote the Certificates of Survey.

Under John Eager Howard, Esq., Governor, the 1777 Maryland General Assembly voted to pass an Act for “recruiting the quota of [Revolutionary War] troops of this state in the American Army, and furnishing them with cloathing and other necessaries.” The Act continues … “Every effective recruit is to receive, besides the continental allowances, a bounty of forty dollars, a pair of shoes, a pair of stockings and, at the expiration of his term [of three years], provided he shall not desert from the army , 50 acres of land, to be procured and laid off as aforesaid, to him or his representative.” … excerpted from the of Maryland 1763-1784, Volume 203, Page 182 (emphases are mine) • Allowance to Deputy Surveyors . Laws There were ten Deputy Surveyors with crews whom Francis Deakins employed for the execution of this survey. This was their current money cash reimbursements for the survey tasks that they performed, to wit: Henry Kemp, 1200 shillings; Daniel Cresap, 580 shillings; Laurence Bringle [sic], 980 shillings; Benjamin Price, 880 shillings; John Tomlinson, 580 shillings; Jonas Hogmire, 840 shillings; Thomas Orm, 700 shillings; John Hooker, 920 shillings; John Lynn, 150 shillings; William Hoye, 920 shillings; paid after the job was completed. Francis Deakins got paid “200 pounds, current money, for the completion of the surveys, making out the plots and registering the certificates.”

https://cdn.ymaws.com/marylandsurveyor.site-ym.com/resource/collection/C25F8BEC-C889-4DDF-8C05-2D05CF04763F/MilitaryLots1.pdf?utm_source=copilot.com

versed Q&A session: Questions from me for you to consider:
1. Why did Deakins survey so many 50-acre lots? Where did he get the number “4,165”?
2. Why did he use a magnetic compass to provide the alignment of a true meridian ? How did he determine the magnetic variation, or declination, so that his compass needle would indicate True North instead of Magnetic North?
3. Deakins found and honored the Fairfax Stone, set by Peter Jefferson in 1746, 41 years earlier, as the southwest corner of the State. However, he then chose to align the “present supposed boundary line of Maryland” to Magnetic “True” North, instead of Astronomic North. Why did he do that? Was it to save time, to get the job done faster? Or, did he simply not know how to or could not determine the direction of actual True North? Did he know how to use the proper survey instruments for performing precise observations for true alignments? If so, why didn’t he bring them along with him?
4. Since only 2,575 50-acre lots were allotted to veterans, what happened to the 1,590 lots remaining? Here, at least, is one question we can answer! (See next Slide)

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