Metes and bounds is a way of describing land by tracing its boundary: the metes are the bearings (directions) and distances of each line, and the bounds are the corners and markers where the lines meet, such as stones, stakes, trees or neighboring tracts, followed in order until the description closes at its point of beginning.
The Kentucky Land Office glossary gives the shortest definition: metes are the bearing, direction and distance of a line; bounds are the corners, which may be trees or stakes. A metes-and-bounds description walks the perimeter of a tract one line at a time, from a point of beginning, around each corner and back to the start.
It is the opposite approach to the Public Land Survey System. Township and range places a tract on a grid surveyed in advance; metes and bounds describes each tract by its own boundary, as surveyed for that tract.
Each segment of a description is a call: a direction, a distance and the corner it ends at. A typical call reads "thence North 45 degrees East 40 chains to a stone." Read it as: from the last corner, travel on a bearing 45 degrees east of north for 40 chains, and stop at the stone.
Metes-and-bounds descriptions are typical where land passed to private owners outside the federal rectangular survey. Four examples, each from official land records (see West Virginia land surveys for the fourth):
| State | How land passed to private owners | Where the original records are |
|---|---|---|
| Kentucky | By patent. Every grant traces to Acts of the Virginia or Kentucky General Assembly; the grantor is Virginia or the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and most patents carry a metes-and-bounds description. The exception is the Jackson Purchase in western Kentucky: in 1820 the General Assembly ordered it mapped into ranges, townships and sections, and its non-military patents sold quarter-sections. | Kentucky Secretary of State, Land Office |
| Pennsylvania | By a sequence of application, warrant, survey and patent from the colony and Commonwealth land office. | Pennsylvania State Archives (warrant registers, copied surveys, patent indexes, warrantee township maps) |
| Texas | By original patent surveys made as the Republic and State of Texas granted land; these surveys form the state's official land survey system. | Texas General Land Office (State Abstract of Land Titles, field notes, working sketches) |
| West Virginia | By Virginia patent or grant before June 20, 1863, when the area was part of Virginia; many early grants were in the Northern Neck Proprietary. | Library of Virginia (Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants); county deeds and surveys, with microfilm at West Virginia Archives and History |
In Kentucky, the Secretary of State's Land Office is the repository for all patents issued within Kentucky's boundary, including those Virginia issued before statehood in 1792, and it offers searchable databases of warrants and patents. In Pennsylvania, the State Archives' Land Office records let you trace a tract from the warrant through the survey to the patent; the archives point researchers to the warrant registers, copied survey books, patent indexes and warrantee township maps. In Texas, the General Land Office's land grant database and survey records lead from a modern description back to the original grant; see Texas land surveys and abstract numbers.
Later conveyances are recorded in the county where the land lies. A modern mineral title search starts with the current deed and works back through those county records to the original grant, matching each description to the one before it. See chain of title.
Mineral deeds and leases in metes-and-bounds country often describe a tract by reference to an older deed ("being the same land conveyed by…") rather than by a full boundary call. Errors carried forward, vanished monuments and descriptions that do not close are among the reasons a title examiner may ask for curative work or a new survey. Keep every deed in your chain, with its full description, and let a licensed surveyor reconcile anything that does not fit.
This page is general information, not legal advice.
The Public Land Survey System (Township and Range)
Texas Land Surveys and Abstract Numbers
Mineral Rights in Pennsylvania
Oil & Gas Encyclopedia — all terms
Educational information only — not legal, tax, or investment advice. Consult a qualified attorney, CPA, or landman about your specific situation.
A way to describe land by its boundary. The metes are the bearings and distances of each line; the bounds are the corners, such as trees, stakes or stones, where the lines meet.
Start at the point of beginning and follow each call in order: a bearing, a distance and the corner it ends at. The last call should return to the point of beginning.
One line of a metes-and-bounds description: a direction, a distance and the corner or monument at its end, such as "North 45 degrees East 40 chains to a stone."
The Kentucky Land Office glossary notes a surveyor's chain may be 66 feet, and that a mile is 80 chains.
States where land did not pass out of the federal public domain on the rectangular grid, such as Kentucky and Pennsylvania, plus the original surveys of Texas.
Township and range places land on a grid surveyed in advance from a meridian and base line. Metes and bounds describes each tract by tracing its own boundary.
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