Hershey Before Hershey

The purpose of government is to protect its members’ property. In order to achieve this purpose, the property of the members must be known and also taxed so that the government can support itself. In order to be granted the title to a plot of land, one would have to go through a 5 step process: submission of an Application, a request for land with specifics of how much and in what place; an order for a Warrant, which is a written document ordering a survey of the plot restating where the plot is to be and how many acres are desired; the Surveying of the land, which is the process of marking and measuring the boundaries of the land; the Return of Survey, basically the results of the survey and combined with the warrant, also is a statement of the purchase price and fees paid; and finally the Patent, a deed from the previous owner of the land given to the purchaser (1*).

Now by looking at that example, we learn:

Because William Penn laid out the policies for land distribution with the Indians, his heirs followed in suit as they sold off the land they owned to the immigrants flooding into America. (*2 See here for more information)
Looking at the Warrantee Map of Derry Township(*3), there are 2 sections: the map itself and numbers surrounding it. Looking at the map first, you will see the plots of land as of 1946. In each of these plots are: the survey number, the name of the Warrantee, the number of Acres for purchase, the date the Warrant was issued, the date the plot was Surveyed (and in some cases Resurveyed), the date the Patent was issued, the name of the Patentee, and the Patent number. Certain plots also have circled numbers or letters, which correspond to the numbers around the map. These numbers are data which cannot fit into the plot due to space. Certain plots have instructions for where the survey markings were, while others do not. The ones that do not, one must simply look at the markings of the adjacent plots.

Vincent Bartolome