MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY                          515

lying between the northwest (Marshyhope Creek) and the northeast
branches of the Nanticoke River became acute. Prior to this time Som-
erset County as the older had assumed the northwest branch to be the
main Nanticoke River, and had accordingly exercised authority over
the territory between the two branches. On October 4, 1684, the Gov-
ernor and Council issued an order that the bounds of Somerset and
Dorchester County be determined. A commission was appointed to
ascertain the main branch of the Nanticoke River and the bounds
between the two counties and their findings were ordered to be filed with
the next succeeding Provincial Court (Md. Arch., 17:286 cited under
Dorchester County). The decision of the commission was that the main
branch was the one that has been accepted as such from that time to the
present day. This decision of the commissioners defining the meaning
of the original boundaries fixed the location of the northern boundaries
of Somerset County permanently, except in so far as they have been
subsequently modified by the determination of the Delaware-Maryland
boundary line and the erection of Worcester and Wicomico counties.

The erection of Worcester County by the Acts of 1742, Chapter 19,
permanently limited Somerset County on the east. The line at this
time according to the Act was to run

" up the Westernmost Side of the said Creek [Dividing Creek] and to the
Bridges called Denstone's Bridges, and from thence West to the main road
called Parahawkin-Road; thence up and with the said road to John Caldwell,
seniors, saw-mill, thence up and with the said road over Cox's Branch, to
Broad Creek Bridge, and down the said Branch and Creek into Nanticoke-
River."

This boundary remained the limit of Somerset County on the east
until the State Convention of 1867 when Wicomico County was erected
out of portions of Somerset and Worcester counties. The old boundary
ran from the crossing of Dividing Creek by the road from Snow Hill to
Princess Anne along the road running from that point to Fruitland, and
thence to Salisbury along the main road on the east side of the railroad
to Laurel, Delaware. By the decision of 1750 determining the Delaware
boundary line the Somerset boundary stopped just east of Delmar and
36