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MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE

The proprietors of the marsh were Alexander Lawson, Brian Philpot and
Thomas Harrison. A small marsh bordered the eastern edge of Lawson's bluff and
several acres of swamp sat on Philpot's the east bank, but most of the land, perhaps
ten acres, was in the hands of Thomas Harrison. It was the fringe leftover when
eighteen acres of Harrison's Marsh had been added to Baltimore Town in 1747
(Map 8).

The assembly came up with a novel scheme to promote reclamation. A survey
was ordered which laid out the land into one-eighth-acre lots. The proprietors
were then given a choice. They could either make the lots into dry ground
themselves or suffer a confiscation by the town commission. In the event of
confiscation the commission would sell the lots to purchasers upon an express
condition that the purchasers must reclaim the land within eighteen months. The
purchase money would then be turned over to the respective proprietors.'77

The scheme had two problems. The first was legal. Harrison had already leased
a number of small lots to lessees for ninety-nine years, renewable forever; the
lessees were the beneficial owners of the land. The act responded by giving these
lessees the right to preserve their leasehold interest by making the lot into dry
ground.78

The second problem was less tractable; it was economic. Land along the banks
of the Falls was not valuable enough to justify the cost of reclamation. In his efforts
to make the marsh more marketable Thomas Harrison had offered the lots for no
money down through the use of the ground rent system of finance. But even with
this incentive the lots remained unimproved.79

The legislative initiative likewise failed to produce buyers willing to reclaim the
land. As a result the plan was never put into operation. The effective date of the
legislation was twice postponed for two years, and in 1779 Harrison's Marsh was
ordered surveyed and laid out anew.80

The Fell Family Lands. The Fell brothers, Quaker immigrants from Lancashire,
had long been active as Baltimore land speculators. Brother Edward, who had set
up store at the mouth of the Falls in 1726, failed in his effort to divest Charles
Carroll of Annapolis of Cole's Harbour; brother William, a ship builder, had
obtained a questionable escheat patent to Mountney's Neck in 1737, which his heirs
eventually quitclaimed to Thomas Sligh in 1758. On the other hand, the brothers
purchased good title to a number of lots in Jones Town, and William's claims to
Island Point and Copus Harbour were apparently senior to all others (recall Map
5).

In 1738 Edward Fell died, leaving all his property to his nephew and namesake;
in 1746 William Fell died, leaving all of his property to his son. Death consolidated
the Fell family properties in Edward Fell the younger. He devoted the rest of his
days to perfecting the family claim to the lands to the east of Baltimore Town.

In 1761 Edward Fell the younger obtained a patent to Fells Prospect, which
constituted a resurvey of four parcels already claimed by the Fell family: Island
Point, Copus Harbour, Carter's Delight, andTrinkett's Field. The surveyor reduced
the whole into one entire tract of three hundred forty-three acres of land, more or

Parceling Out Land

161

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1773 1

Map 10. Additions to East Baltimore, 1773, 1781.

less. The parcel took on a grotesque shape as the surveyor added to the ancient
patents a seventy-acre strip of vacant land which wrapped tentacle-like along the
Patapsco and Harris Creek waterfronts82 (Map 8).

In only taking up a strip from the vacated patents for Kemp's Addition and
Parkers Haven, Fell engaged in a profit-maximizing strategy known as "stringing."
The land office charged forty shillings per hundred acres and an annual quit-rent
of four shillings. Stringing allowed Fell to obtain valuable water frontage at
minimum cost. The land office had rules against the practice, but the surveyors
knew who their friends were.83

Once he perfected title to his tract, Edward Fell the younger wasted no time in
putting lots on the market. In 1763 he laid out streets on a grid, except on the
Point, where they followed the lay of the land (Map 10). Among the first purchasers
in 1765 was Capt. Charles Ridgely who bought a waterfront lot. Edward Fell the
younger died in 1766 leaving an infant son, William, as his heir. The task of
marketing the family landholding fell to his wife and executrix, Ann Fell. Ann Fell
so successfully marketed her land that Fell's Point soon rivaled Baltimore Town as
a maritime center. It had a certain natural advantage— deep water access attracted
wharves, warehouses, and shipyards, which extended out into the North West

Branch.84

Newcomers to the region had a hard time deciding in which settlement to live.
To attract them to the Point, Ann Fell advertised and provided no-downpayment
financing; her advertisements dispelled rumors that the Fell title was unmarketable