Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection open for research.

Use Restrictions

Physical characteristics and conditions affect use of this material. Photocopying not permitted.

Preferred Citation

Asa Jackson Surveying Collection, 1860-1866 (M 072, ART 0002) Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA..

Acquisition Information

Dorothy von Briesen, Sykesville, MD.

Alternative Form Available

None

Accruals

2011.0237

Processing Information

Elizabeth Preston, 20 December 2011

Biographical Information

Asa Jackson was born between 1795 and 1800 in Loudoun County, Virginia to Eura (Newhouse) and John Jackson. He lived in Loudoun County for his whole life, spending most of his time in the Southern District, in the areas around Mountville and Middleburg. He married Susan Rhodes, also of Loudoun County, and had nine children. Jackson died on July 6, 1866 and was buried in Union Cemetery in Leesburg.

Jackson made a living in a variety of ways. He held a position in the Goose Creek and Little River Navigation Company in 1839. The incorporated company attempted to make Goose Creek and the Little River, both major waterways in Loudoun County, useful as highways. Jackson also owned interest in a mill on Goose Creek near Snickersville Turnpike and Mountville, and registered a patent on a machine for winnowing grain in 1841. He is listed as a millwright in the 1850 census. Jackson's primary source of occupation over the years, however, was as surveyor. As an independent surveyor, he regularly surveyed parcels involved in land transactions. He also worked as a Commissioner in Chancery for the Chancery Court of Loudoun County. A commissioner could be appointed to relieve the court of dealing with the more complicated and technical details involved in the settling of cases. Jackson would survey land in dispute or parcels of land to be divided among heirs for the court, for instance. He then submitted copies of the completed surveys to the court or to the individuals who requested the surveys, and collected his fees. Jackson maintained clean copies of his surveys in personal survey books. These books contain the descriptions of parcels of land in Loudoun County, but contain few plats or drawings.

As one of the original thirteen colonies, Virginia's land was not surveyed in accordance with the Public Land Survey System. That system is a mathematically designed system of surveying, and has been in place in the United States since the passage of the Land Ordinance of 1785. Virginia was originally surveyed using the British system of metes and bounds, or descriptions of property lines based on markers. The markers were often topographical, but could be natural, manmade, or created specifically for the purpose of marking a boundary.

Scope and Content

This collection contains one survey book and one fifty foot measuring tape in a leather and brass case. The volume contains 85 surveys from the years 1860-1861 and 1864-1866, as well as a list of surveys. The list contains only the last names of the entities involved in the land transactions, and are arranged chronologically. There are plats included in the volume, though not for every survey. The surveys performed as a commissioner in chancery also include a list of fees Jackson charged. The volume was rebound by Jackson's great-grandson, Asa Jackson Dulin, and it is his name that appears on the cover.

Arrangement

Box: Folder

Related Material

Hughes, Sarah S. Surveyors and Statesmen: Land Measuring in Colonial Virginia . Richmond: Virginia Surveyors Foundation, 1979 (V REF 526.92 HUG); Lewis, Elisabeth C. A Brief History of Loudoun County and the Towns Therein: Based on the Yardley Taylor Map of the County . [S.I.], 1976 (V REF 975.528 LEW); Saffer, Wynne C. Original Land Grant Ownership Records . Leesburg, VA: the author, 2007 (V REF 929.375528); Taylor, Yardley. Memoir of Loudoun County, Virginia. To Accompany the Map of Loudoun County . Philadelphia: R.P. Smith, 1853 (V REF 975.528 TAY); Wilson, Donald A. Interpreting Land Records . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2006 (V REF 526.9 WIL).

Adjunct Descriptive Data

Bibliography

Ancestry Library Edition. United States Census. http://www.ancestrylibrary.com, (accessed 21 December 2011).

Duncan, Patricia. Index to Loudoun County Deed Books, 4O-4V, 1840-1846 . Westminster, MD: Willow Bend Books, 2006.

Linklater, Andro. Measuring America: How the United States was Shaped by the Greatest Land Sale in History . New York: Penguin Group, 2002.

Newhouse, John Richey. Newhouse Family History, 1740-1915 . Stone Mountain, GA: V. F. Newhouse, 1986.

Obituary of Asa Jackson. Loudoun Times-Mirror , July 11, 1866, p. 3.

"Reference to a Commissioner in Chancery." Virginia Law Register , vol. 5, no. 7. http://www.jstor.com (accessed 20 December 2011).

Williams, Harrison. Legends of Loudoun: An Account of the History and Homes of a Border County of Virginia's Northern Neck . Richmond: Garrett and Massie, 1938.

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Other Finding Aid

None

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Technical Requirements

None