GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: Re: Land Grants
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 07:26:43 -0400

The question has been asked:

>The Germans returned
>platt by Thomas Barber surveyor for 1805 A. 108 Per. Grant in names of
>3 of their members that are naturalized: John Fishback, John Hoffman, &
>Jacob Holtzclaw in Stafford Co. 22 Aug 1724.
>
>Who were these 108 persons. If only 42 were in the first colony, how do
>we account for the other 66 persons? Any Help would be appreciated.

"Per" is an abbreviation for perch, a land measure smaller than an acre.
Thus the tract was slightly more than 1805 acres. It appears that in
practice, the tract had a couple of hundred more acres than this stated
quantity.

A perch was actually a length, equal to one rod or one pole, which is 25
links or one-quarter chain or 16.5 feet. When used as an area measure, a
perch means a square of length of one perch on each side. (All of this
thanks to the information in the DeedMapper handbook.)
John Blankenbaker
Beyond Germanna
PO Box 120
Chadds Ford, PA 19317
http://www.wp.com/germanna/
http://www.concentric.net/~sgtgeorg/germhist.shtm

This thread:

• Land Grants by hfarmer <>

  • Re: Land Grants by John Blankenbaker <>