Daily AncestorProcessioning
Processioning was the periodic walking of property lines in a Virginia parish, ordered by the vestry, to confirm and renew each tract's boundaries.
In the early 1660s Virginia required landowners to go in procession every four years to view and agree on their boundary lines, and the parish vestries organized it in precincts. Later laws of 1705 and 1710 set out the process in more detail.
The processioners' returns list owners and neighbors precinct by precinct, so they can prove who held land next to whom. Only a small number of parishes' records survive.
As seen in a recordProcessioners' returns in a Virginia vestry book, 1711 to 1780s
Processioned the lines of Wm. Tapp and Jno. Read, present both, all agreed
Sources
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Daily Ancestor. "Processioning." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/church/processioning. Last checked 2026-10-03.