[ Chapter 35 was added to the revised and updated 4th edn. of N. H.’s best-selling The Compleat Tradesman, published posthumously in 1720 (and again in 1721). The poem, an 18th-century version of the “Olde English rules, for purchasing land” printed by Barnabe Googe in 1577, introduced the multi-page “Table for Land Measure,” useful to surveyors, that followed. ]
C H A P. X X X V.
Directions relating to the Purchasing,
and Measuring of Land.
F I R S T, see the Land which thou intend’st to buy,
Within the Seller’s Title clear do lie;
And that no Woman to it doth lay Claim
By Dow’ry, Jointure, or some other Name
That may it cumber. Know if bound or free
The Tenure stand, and that from each Feoffee
It be releas’d. That th’ Seller be so old,
That he may lawful Sell, thou lawful hold:
Have special Care that it not Mortgag’d be,
Nor be intayled on Posterity.
Then if it stand in Statute, bound or no,
Be well advis’d what Quit-rent out must go,
What custom Service hath been done of old,
By those who formerly the same did hold;
And if a wedded Woman put to Sale,
Deal not with her unless she bring her Male;
For she doth under Covert-baron go.
Altho’ sometimes some traffique so (we know)
Thy Bargain being made, and all this done,
Have special Care to make thy Charter run
To thee, thy Heirs, Executors, Assigns,
For that beyond thy Life, securely binds.
These Things foreknown, and done, you may prevent
Those Things rash Buyers many Times repent.
And yet when you have done all that you can,
If you’ll be sure, deal with an honest Man.
(from The Compleat Tradesman: or, the Exact Dealers
Daily Companion, 4th edn., 1720, p. 166)
[ The multi-page “Table for Land Measure” began on the next page, right after the poem. ]
.gif)
Digital facsimile of Page 1 of the 3-page table for surveyors which, together with the preceding poem, constitute the book’s set of “Directions relating to the Purchasing, and Measuring of Land.”
The note at the top of the table reads: “Note, That for the Measuring of Land, it is measured by the Pole, Pearch, or Rod, which is usually 16 Foot and a half Long, and according to the Statute, 4 Poles in Breadth, and 40 Poles in Length, make an Acre, from which is made this Table following ...” (The Compleat Tradesman, 4th edn., 1720, 167).
Thus follow two more pages of similar calculations.
Chapter 35 concludes with instructions for “How to use the foregoing Table”: “If you have a Piece of Land, or Field, eleven Pole Broad and you desire to know how many Pole in Length will make that an Acre; against 11 in the first Column you will find 14—9—0 in the Second Column for the Length.” (The Compleat Tradesman, 4th edn., 1720, 169)
Standards of measure for a pole (or perch) and an acre, which varied by region even within Britain, were given separately in a table of “weights, measures, and numbers” added by N. H. (as chapter 32) to the 2nd rev. edn. of The Compleat Tradesman in 1684. You can link to a transcription of the new chapter 32 from the calling page for this second-window aside. See under “Pre-20th-Century Works” in the References section.
— Excerpt from The Compleat Tradesman: or, the Exact Dealers Daily Companion, by N. H. (rev. 4th edn., London, 1720), pp. 166 and 167.
.gif){kind=icon}
