to be a part of the patent of his neighbor. Several
cases having arisen over this situation, the Assembly in 1642/43 and
again in 1657/58 and 1661/62 provided that when one person had
unknowingly erected constructions on another person's land, the original
owner as shown by survey was to have the right to purchase the
improvements at a price fixed by a twelve-man jury. If the amount proved
too great for the original owner, then the person seating the land by
mistake was to have the option of purchasing the land at a price set by
the jury for its value before seating occurred. Beginning with the
1657/58 statement of the law, no consideration was to be given if
construction had been made after legal warning had been given to desist.

Other legislation was designed to minimize the number of cases of this
type that would arise. One provision made in 1646 required the person
claiming to be the original owner of the land to file suit against his
encroaching neighbor within five years for removal; otherwise possession
of the land for five years without contest would prevent recovery by the
original claimant. The law exempted orphans from the above provision and
permitted them a five-year period after coming of age. A later enactment
in 1657/58 repeated the provision on orphans and added to the exemption
married women and persons of unsound mind. A second provision designed
to prevent quarrels among neighbors required a person holding patent to
land adjacent to a proposed grant to show the boundaries of his property
within twelve months; otherwise the latest grant as surveyed would be
valid and would take precedence over the old patent.

But these various laws did not prevent "contentious suites" from arising
because of defective surveys when the lines were first run or because
the restriction against resurveys did not resolve the boundary disputes.
Conflicts continued if the surveyor had been negligent in marking
clearly the boundaries, or if lines had become indistinct by the chops
in trees filling out, by piles of stones being scattered, or by trees
being removed. To prevent "the inconvenience of clandestine surveigh,"
the Assembly in 1661/62 enacted the law of processioning. By this
provision the members of each community were to "goe in procession" once
every four years to examine and renew, if necessary, the boundary lines.
Boundaries acknowledged by the procession as correct were conclusive and
prohibited later claims to