DCHP-1

fence viewer †

a municipal official whose duty it is to see that fences meet legal specifications as to construction and location.
See also: judge of fences
- Although in general use in colonial Canada, the term is now confined to Nova Scotia; it came to Canada from New England.
- 1793 (1869) The following persons were chosen to officiate in their respective offices, the ensuing year, and also the regulations of the same. . . . Abraham Mayvee and Peter Rutland, fence viewers. The height of the fence to be 4 feet 8 inches; water fence voted to be fenced.
- 1846 All freeholders above the officers in full control. twenty-one years of age are entitled to a vote, and choose the undermentioned officers, viz.--one assessor and a collector . . . and from three to eighteen fence-viewers, whose duty it is to regulate fences.
- 1894 (1960) Bad boundary fences were then, as now, a fertile source of misunderstanding between neighbors; I had been warned of this, and desired . . . to avert the necessity for the services of those municipal officers, known as "fence viewers," who are lawful and absolute arbiters in case of dispute.
- 1955 List of Ward Officers--. . . Cattle Reeves . . . Fence Viewers . . . Sheep Valuers. . . .
- 1963 . . . in fact one of the municipal offices at one time was that of fence-viewer.