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MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 475
of the Western Branch. The Big Patuxent above this point at that time
had been explored to little or no extent and even into the eighteenth
century was known as Snowdens River rather than the Big Patuxent.
This divergence in the use of local terms is frequently encountered
where only parts of the natural features were known at the period of
the first settlement.
Old Charles County was not of long duration. By the 28th of Sep-
tember, 1653, Lord Baltimore had issued instructions to discharge Robert
Brookes and in July, 1654, the Governor, by the advice of his Council,
repealed the act of 1650 " touching the Erecting Some part of the South
Side of Patuxent River into a County by the Name of Charles County."
At the same time the Governor decided to
" Erect make and appoint both sides of Putuxent River into one County by
the name Calvert County Bounded on the South Side with Pynehill River
or Creeke to the head thereof and from thence through the woods to the
head of Putuxent River being the Northerly bound of St Maries County, and
bounded on the North Side with the Creeke upon the Westerne Side of Chese-
peacke Bay called the herring Creeke and from thence through the woods
to the head of Putuxent River being the Southerly bound of Annarundell
County."
The new Charles County, or Charles County as it is known to-day, was
erected by the Governor and Council April 13, 1658.24 The sheriff of
Charles County is mentioned in the Assembly for 1659 and frequent
references are made in succeeding years. The motive for the erection
of this new county was the accommodation of the inhabitants in the
growing settlements along the estuaries of the Nanjemoy and Port
Tobacco creeks. Clearings at the time extended but a short distance
away from the water's edge or the stream bottoms and though the num-
ber of inhabitants was small the distance from the Court House at St.
Mary's City was sufficient to occasion inconvenience. The first definite
statement found regarding the limits of Charles County are found in
the general act of 1695, defining the limits of many of the then existing
counties. According to this act Charles County was to begin upon the
24 Md. Arch., 3: 341.
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