Definition
A term of art in land descriptions and conveyancing, used to introduce each successive course in a metes-and-bounds boundary description. When "thence" precedes a direction and distance — for example, "thence north 45 degrees east, 200 feet" — it signals that the new course begins exactly where the preceding course ended, creating an unbroken, continuous boundary line. The word does more than point direction; it carries a legal import of geometric continuity, linking each segment of a description into a connected sequence without gaps or overlaps.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): From there, from that place or from that time; deriving from a fact or circumstance; therefore, therefrom.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): From that place; from that time; thenceforth; thereafter; for that reason; therefore.
In ordinary English, "thence" is simply an archaic adverb meaning "from that place" or "from that point forward." The legal distinction is narrow but significant: in a deed or survey, the word does not merely indicate spatial direction — it is a term of legal art asserting that each described course connects precisely and continuously to the one before it. That geometric import is invisible in common usage but can determine whether a boundary description is legally sufficient.
Common Confusion
"Thence" is sometimes treated in older deeds as mere stylistic formality — a verbose way of saying "then" or "from there." This misreading strips the word of its operative meaning. Courts have held that "thence" establishes continuity of courses; its absence or inconsistent use in a description can raise ambiguity about whether a boundary gap or overlap exists between segments. Researchers should not treat "thence" as decorative language when evaluating the sufficiency of historical property descriptions.
Why It Matters in Research
For researchers working with historical deeds, land grants, and survey records, "thence" is load-bearing language. Every major historical legal dictionary defines it identically — as an indicator of continuous courses — which means its meaning has been stable across American legal usage since at least the nineteenth century. That stability is useful: a researcher encountering "thence" in an 1820 deed and a 1920 deed can apply the same interpretive rule.
The practical trap lies not in the word itself but in its absence or substitution. Older documents sometimes use "then," "from thence," or no linking word at all between courses. When continuity language is dropped or inconsistent, a boundary dispute may hinge on whether the description creates an implied gap. Researchers tracing title chains or analyzing boundary litigation should note every point where "thence" is replaced or omitted.
"Thence" also appears in legislative descriptions of territorial or municipal boundaries, where the same rule of continuous courses applies. Corpus researchers moving between deed records and statutory boundary descriptions should expect consistent usage but verify, since legislative drafters occasionally use the word more loosely than surveyors do.
The single reported case underlying all four source dictionaries — Flagg v. Mason, 141 Mass. 66, 6 N.E. 702 — gives the term its canonical American legal definition. That lineage means every major dictionary entry on this term traces to one Massachusetts decision, which is worth knowing when evaluating how broadly the definition might apply in other jurisdictions.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries — Black's (both editions), Anderson's, and Bouvier's — give essentially identical definitions, and all cite or reference the same Massachusetts authority. There is no meaningful divergence among them. This uniformity is itself informative: it suggests the term was well-settled in legal usage by the time these dictionaries were compiled and that no significant doctrinal contest surrounded its meaning.
What the historical dictionaries do not address is the consequence of omitting the word, or how courts should treat descriptions where "thence" appears inconsistently. Those questions fall outside dictionary scope but are the live research questions most likely to arise in practice. The dictionaries also do not discuss "thence" in legislative or non-survey contexts — a gap researchers should keep in mind.
Jurisdictional Note
The definition is functionally uniform across American jurisdictions that use metes-and-bounds surveying. States relying primarily on the rectangular Public Land Survey System use "thence" less frequently in original government patents, though the word appears in later private conveyances throughout those states with the same meaning.