MBL Overview

The Metes & Bounds Language (MBL) is used to describe a deed. It’s what you enter in the Text View. Once the MBL is entered, DeedMapper will plot the parcel and display it in the Plot View for you.

DeedMapper offers three ways of entering a deed’s text into the Text View.  Experienced users may wish to simply type it into an empty Text View window, or to have the view filled with a canned deed template which they then fill out.  New or infrequent users should use the Deed Entry form.  You enter the information from your deed into the form and the form then creates the MBL text in the Text View for you.  Choose the deed entry method you like best by selecting the Text View tab of the View Options dialog.

A deed consists of a number of lines of text that you enter using the Text View's text editor. The first word on each line must be a word that DeedMapper understands. The vocabulary is described in the sections that follow.

If you look at the example below you'll see that there are three types of text lines: Abstracting, Survey, and End. These categories must occur in order. 

Any line beginning with an exclamation point ( ! ) is considered to be a comment line, and is not analyzed or used by DeedMapper. There may be as many comment lines in an item as you like, and they can be placed anywhere in the item.

Any line that is not a comment must begin with one of the words described in the pages that follow, followed by a space. The words may be typed in upper, lower, or mixed case.

The following is an example of a complete deed item expressed in Metes & Bounds Language, with color used to highlight the Abstracting, Survey, and End sections:

Typ deed

Ref 1:132

Dat 14 Aug 1807

Rec 25 May 1808

Frm David Smith and wife Emily

To Branson Davis

Con $50

Re 20a on Muskrat Creek, with orchards

Pt white oak on Hugh Brown's former survey

Ln n23e; 50p; crossing sd creek

Pt white oak on the bank of sd creek

! The following might be 30p

Ln n34w; 50p;

Pt double black oak

Ln s45w; 67p;

Pt stake, conditional line with Hartwell

Lc s45e; ; with sd conditional line to the beginning

End

In this example, we see that the text began with the type of the item. In this case it is a deed of sale of a tract of land so the description "deed" is used. The sale took place on August 14, but was recorded in deed book 1, page 132, the following May 25. David Smith and wife Emily sold 20 acres of land on Muskrat Creek to Branson Davis for $50. There were no witnesses. The bounds of the land begin at a white oak tree on a line in a former survey of a Hugh Brown. From that point the survey goes North 23 degrees East for 50 poles, crossing Muskrat Creek to a white oak tree on the other side of the creek. Several lines and points are described, with the final unspecified closing line being one that is conditionally shared with a Hartwell.

Next section: Abstracting Section