A field note description begins with a brief general overview of
where the property is located, usually making reference to prior owners of the property and the patent survey, or
patent surveys, in which the property is located. These references typically cite Volumes and Pages where the
information has been legally recorded in the office of the County Clerk.
Next a description is given of the Point of Beginning. This point is where the actual description starts and is
represented by some type of monument which can be positively located and is legally of record. Iron rods or pins,
stakes, concrete monuments, and even rocks and trees are examples of what may be found of record to be used as a
Point of Beginning.
Once the Point of beginning has been established the description of the boundary is given as a series of "Thence"
statements which give a bearing (direction) and distance to go from the Point of Beginning to the 1st corner, from
the 1st corner to the 2nd corner, from the 2nd corner to the 3rd corner, and so on until the description comes back
to the Point of Beginning.
The bearings used in a field note description are written as a number of Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds in a
particular quandrant direction. Going in a Northeast direction 45 degrees, 0 minutes, and 0 seconds would be
written as follows:
North 45°-00'-00" East
Examples of how to read these bearings are shown HERE.
Sample Field Notes:
Beginning at the Northwest corner of a five acre tract being of record
Thence: North 45°-00'-00" East 920 feet to an iron rod set.
The plat which is described in the sample field notes above would look like this:
in Volume 100 Page 993 of the County Deed Records.
Thence: South 20°-00'-00" East 642.79 feet to an Oak tree marked "X" this day.
Thence: South 60°-00'-00" West 500 feet to an iron rod found.
Thence: North 70°-00'-00" West 500 feet to the Point of Beginning.
You may have noticed that although the description said that it returned to the Point of Beginning the lines on the map did not in fact meet. This is called a misclosure. In plane geometry the perimeter of an area must meet itself. A misclosure in a field note description results from either a mathematical or typographical error.
In this case the distance of the Northwest property line is too short. Instead of being 920 feet long it should have been 965.93 feet long.
The corrected plat would look like this:
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