Somerset and Worcester Surveyors of Record, 1662–1867

Information prepared and ©2005 John C. Lyon.

Following is a complete chronological list of the Deputy Surveyors (and a few others used in special circumstances) on the Lower Shore before Wicomico County was created in 1867. Until the creation of Worcester on 10 Dec 1742, this territory had been all Somerset. Afterwards there were designated surveyors for each of the two counties, and after 1867, of course, for all three.

The first Maryland survey in this region - MANNINGS RESOLUTION, for Capt. Thomas Manning - was run by John Elzey on 16 Oct 1662, though Somerset was not actually created until 1666. A few tracts may have been surveyed by Virginia in southeastern present-day Worcester even earlier, and novated to Maryland in 1668, as shown on the Early Somerset map.

The Deputy in the position title, granted by the Province, meant "for the county". Much later, the title was changed to simply "County Surveyor". These are all of the men who submitted signed survey descriptions to the Provincial (later, State) Land Office, as recorded on the original certificates of survey and other surviving copies/transcripts. Those not otherwise annotated in the list had been authorized and appointed Deputy Surveyor for the county (as attested on the original records), though there is some unexplained overlap in service dates. It is imaginable, as implied, that more than one individual at a time held an official commission as Deputy Surveyor for a county. The dates of appointment are sometimes seen in the county Judicial records.

For a period between about 1670 and 1674, there was some irregularity, with the Dorchester Deputy County Surveyor and others all performing this function in some parts of Somerset. No provincially-approved surveys were recorded during the 1689-96 governmental crisis.

There is clear inferential evidence in the source records that other (unnamed) surveyors often carried out the actual surveys, which were then reviewed and approved for submission by the County Surveyor. Many of the early certificates are prepared in different hands, surely private surveyors given contract for the assignment. This is unsurprising, given the size of the region and the number of surveys conducted to fill the landscape in the early days.

The list is chronological by first survey entered for the party. The number is the total count of the certificates of survey recorded for him and retained in the Land Office, whether ultimately patented or not. This number does not include other surveys made for property conveyances through deed or probate division, etc. The number of surveys gradually diminished with time, as new (vacant) lands were taken up. Resurveys made up over half of all Land Office-approved surveys after the 1760s.