Label
Surveyor’s Chain
Used by James Whitelaw (1748 - 1829), Vermont’s second Surveyor General
Ryegate, VT
Gift of George P. Whitelaw, 1885.1.5
James Whitelaw was born in Scotland, and came to America in 1773 as a land scout for the Scotch American Company of Farmers. He worked and traveled in several different colonies, but settled in Ryegate, Vermont. In 1787 he became Vermont’s second Surveyor General. In this capacity he was responsible for completing accurate local surveys of towns and counties.
Whitelaw’s work is central to the new settlers’ process of dividing the Vermont landscape for private ownership and development. Mapmaking is a process of definition: Whitelaw and others like him were projecting their own vision of Vermont’s landscape. That vision emphasized European-style agriculture, certain kinds of “productive” wild animals, and left no room for the catamount.