Citations:boundsgoer

English citations of boundsgoer

land surveyor who perambulated the perimeter of land claims in early America

• 1859, Henry Reed Stiles, History of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut: Including East Windsor, South Windsor, and Ellington, Prior to 1768, the Date of Their Separation from the Old Town; and Windsor, Bloomfield and Windsor Locks, to the Present Time, page 61:

  The item of "Liquor for boundsgoers" occurs year after year, among the town expenses, with almost unfailing regularity. In 1669 is charged, "Mr. Wolcott for liquors for boundsgoers," the small amount of 6s 3d; and the next ...

• 1890, William Babcock Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, 1620-1789, page 314:

  When the "perambulators" ran out the lines between the towns, following the time-honored Aryan custom, generally rum, sometimes cider, was furnished them at the ordinaries. The "boundsgoers" moistened their dry throats at […]

• 1976, Lola Cazier, Surveys and Surveyors of the Public Domain, 1785-1975, page 9:

  One of the people most admired in a colonial community was the land surveyor, or the "boundsgoer." Young boys often trailed along as the surveyors ran their lines. Many of them learned the fundamentals of the skill as they walked […]

• 2012, Nerida F. Ellerton, M. A. Ken Clements, Rewriting the History of School Mathematics in North America 1607-1861: The Central Role of Cyphering Books, Springer Science & Business Media (→ISBN), page 41:

  ... tracts were being marked off by deepcut blazes in the trees along the line, a knowledge of land surveying was a useful skill, and many a boy learned its elements by following the “boundsgoer” in his work of “running the line.