460 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE family's fortune. Since the Maryland Assembly excluded Catholics from the political life of the colony, the task had his complete attention.29 A test of young Carroll's ability to manage the family holdings was not long in coming. His first actions were defensive. Around 1725 Edward Fell, a Quaker from Lancashire, England, set up a store within the ancient metes and bounds of Cole's Harbour on the east bank of Jones Falls (Map 3). Fell was an "enterprising land-hunter" looking for opportunities to obtain land at a discount.30 Under the procedures established by his "Lordship's agent for management of land affairs within the Province," land discovered to be escheat would be patented to the discoverer at one-third the ordinary price. Fell sought escheat warrants to both the waterfront portion of Bold Venture and to all of Cole's Harbour. He employed Richard Gist to prepare surveys. The Carroll entitlement was in ques- tion.31 Gist's resurvey of Bold Venture laid out four and three-quarter acres of land lying beneath the navigable waters of the Northwest Branch. Notwithstanding the avouchment in the warrant that the parcel, which had come to be known as Fell's Footing, was escheat, Edward Fell never paid the required portion of the value of the land to consummate his title; no patent was ever issued. For whatever reason, Fell had come to accept that no title had devolved by escheat on the Lord Proprietor.32 Edward Fell was more steadfast in his claim to Cole's Harbour. Return of the Gist survey showed that the sole improvements were three dwellings, a mill, tobacco houses, and orchards, and that the land was "one-half cleared and of middling quality." But when Fell asked the judge of the land office to declare the land to be escheat, Charles Carroll of Annapolis entered a caveat.33 Details concerning the dispute between Carroll and Fell have not been found, but by working with collateral sources it is possible to lay out the issues involved. The first link in the chain of title was the 1668 patent to Thomas Cole. If Cole died owning the lands, intestate without heirs, the lands in question were subject to escheat and title would have fallen back to the proprietor.34 The first link in Carroll's chain of title was a 1700 patent of resurvey to James Todd, and there was no evidence of record that Cole had assigned his rights to Todd. Hence, Carroll's chain of record title to Cole's Harbour was broken by a missing link; if it could not be filled, Fell would be entitled to a warrant of escheat to Cole's Harbour.35 Under a prevailing legal fiction of the day, however, proof of twenty years possession by Carroll's predecessors in tide created a presumption of validity of the patent to Todd's Range. By proving such uninterrupted possession, Carroll perfected his title, and the issued caveat denied Edward Fell his escheat warrant.36 Establishment of Baltimore Town. While that dispute was still in litigation, Charles Carroll of Annapolis made his second move. In 1729 he joined with eight of the leading men of Baltimore County in petitioning the upper house of the Assembly, the governor's council, "for building of a Town, on the North side of Patapsco River on land supposed to belong to Messrs. Charles and Daniel Carroll." The petition Parceling Out Land 461 J^Charl "^ Carro Charles Carroll Map 3: Todd subdivision 1701. was granted, and Carroll agreed on behalf of himself and his brother to subdivide sixty acres and to sell the lots at a price of forty shillings per acre.3 The erection of towns was authorized by a 1683 Act of the Assembly for the "procuring of money and the advancement of trade." The machinery of town government was to consist of seven commissioners, whose first duty was to select land and divide it into lots with some open space left for streets and lanes, churches, market houses, and other public buildings. The purchase money was paid directly to the owner of the land. Purchasers were required to erect an improvement within a specified period under penalty of forfeiture. The proprietor's income came from an annual quit-rent of one penny charged to each lot.38 The Commissioners laid out Baltimore Town west of the Jones Falls in the shape of an Indian arrowhead pointed west. It was traversed by three streets: Long Street (now Baltimore Street) running east and west and intersected at right angles by Calvert and Forest streets (now Charles Street). A number of paper streets and alleys were added, creating a gridiron bordered by sixty lots of approximately one acre each (Map 4).39 In 1730 lots were put up for sale, and as the owner of the property Charles Carroll had first choice. He took lot number forty-nine, the prime waterfront property next to the wharf at the foot of Calvert Street. Subsequent takers were charged a fixed price of forty shillings for each lot and required to build a substantial house within eighteen months. The lots toward the river were all disposed of within a