Photo: EmK Photography

A Look at Tennessee’s Hines v. State Doctrine

If you’ve spent any time in Middle Tennessee, you’ve probably come across a property with an old family cemetery tucked into a back pasture or a wooded part of the lot. It’s a common feature of rural and semi-rural Tennessee land and one that catches a surprising number of homeowners off guard. According to Tennessee Historic Preservation Program Specialist Graham Perry, of the 33,000 cemeteries currently documented in the state, there are about 1,000 small, family burial grounds located in Williamson County.

Here’s the scenario: You buy a piece of property. Months or years later, someone you’ve never met shows up at your door, explaining that their great-great-grandparents are buried in a small, fenced-in plot on your land and they’d like to visit. Maybe they want to clean up the headstones or plant flowers or simply pay respects.

Can you say no? In Tennessee, the answer is more nuanced than most homeowners expect.

The Case Behind the Rule

The legal foundation for this goes back over a century, to a Tennessee Supreme Court case called Hines v. State (126 Tenn. 1, 149 S.W. 1058 (1911)). The facts of the case are almost exactly the scenario above: a farmer named William Crawford had set aside about an acre of his land as a family burial ground in the early 1800s. Decades later, the property was sold outside the family to a man named Walter Hines with no mention of the cemetery anywhere in the deed. When Crawford’s descendants tried to visit the graves, Hines refused to let them on the property. He was criminally charged and convicted for it.

The Tennessee Supreme Court upheld that conviction and in doing so laid out a rule that still applies today: once land has been deliberately set apart and used as a family burial ground, that designation runs with the land indefinitely. It doesn’t disappear just because the deed is silent on it and it doesn’t disappear when the property changes hands. Descendants retain a right to reasonable ingress and egress from the nearest public road, for the purpose of visiting, maintaining and repairing the graves.

In plain terms: owning the land doesn’t mean you own the cemetery outright and you generally can’t lock descendants out.

But It’s Not a Free-for-All

This is the part that gets lost when people hear about this case secondhand. The right the court recognized isn’t unlimited. The opinion is explicit that access must be exercised “at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner.”

That phrase means homeowners are entitled to expect:

• Advance notice rather than unannounced visits
• Reasonable hours – daylight, not late at night
• A defined route to and from the burial site, rather than open access to the whole property
• Verification that the person asking actually has a connection to those buried there

None of that violates the spirit of Hines. It’s simply homeowners exercising reasonable control over how the right is exercised, which the case itself invites.

What This Means If You’re Buying or Selling

For buyers, a family cemetery on a property is worth asking about early. It’s the kind of thing that can be easy to miss on a quick showing, especially if the plot is small, unmarked or overgrown. Ask your agent whether the property has ever had a survey noting burial grounds and don’t be surprised if it’s not disclosed in the deed itself.

For sellers, if you know your property has a family cemetery, it’s worth being upfront about it. Buyers who understand what they’re taking on tend to have a much easier time down the road than those who discover it after the fact.

For current homeowners who’ve just learned about this for the first time, having a family cemetery on your land isn’t a legal liability if you handle it reasonably. Most descendants who reach out simply want to visit, maintain or occasionally repair a headstone, not take over your yard. A short conversation and a simple, written understanding (visit hours, advance notice, an agreed path) usually resolves things amicably for everyone.

A Few Related Things Worth Knowing

• You’re not required to maintain the cemetery yourself. Upkeep generally falls to descendants, not the landowner.
• You can’t simply remove or relocate a cemetery on your own. Tennessee law (Title 46 of the Tennessee Code) requires a formal petition process through Chancery Court if relocation is ever necessary.
• The Tennessee Historic Cemetery Preservation Program is a useful resource for homeowners navigating an unfamiliar cemetery on their land, offering guidance beyond what a real estate transaction alone will cover.

The Bottom Line

Hines v. State is over a hundred years old, but it’s still very much alive in how Tennessee handles family burial grounds on private land. If you own or are considering buying a property with one on it, the goal isn’t to fear the law, but to understand it well enough to set reasonable expectations on both sides. It’s just one more piece of Tennessee’s history quietly living on the land itself.

This post is intended as general information and does not constitute legal advice. If you have a specific situation involving a family cemetery on your property, consult an attorney familiar with Tennessee cemetery law.

Cyndi Benavides is a licensed real estate Broker and founder of the nonprofit Preserve Mallory Cemetery. Bridging the gap between property rights and historical preservation, she spends time researching local genealogy, locating descendants and restoring forgotten burial grounds. When navigating the complexities of land ownership and historical acreage, Cyndi helps clients honor the past while securing their future.