Yet notwithstanding these precautions, such was the careless
manner in which these surveys were made, that many illiterate persons,
ignorant of the forms of law, and the necessity of precision in the
specification and descriptions of the tracts on which they had laid
their warrants, made such loose and vague entries in the land office, as
to afford no accurate information to subsequent locators, who frequently
laid their warrants on the same tracts. It thus happened that the whole
or a part of almost every tract was covered with different and
conflicting titles--forming what have been aptly called 'shingle
titles'--overlaying and lapping upon each other, as shingles do upon the
roof of a building. In this way twice the existing acres of land were
sold and the door opened for endless controversy about boundaries and
titles. The following copy of an entry may serve as a specimen of the
vagueness of the lines, buts, and bounds of their claims, and as
accounting for the flood of litigation that ensued.
"George Smith enters nine hundred acres of land on a treasury warrant,
lying on the north side of Kentucky river, a mile below a creek;
beginning about twenty poles below a lick; and running down the river
westwardly, and northwestwardly for quantity."
It will easily be seen that a description, so general and indefinite in
its terms, could serve as no guide to others who might wish to avoid
entering the same lands. This defect in providing for the certainty and
safety of land titles, proved a sore evil to the state of Kentucky.
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