of ownership, however, were unconnected to Blunt. In the final
analysis the strength of Todd's title to Mountney's Neck was that
he took possession, and no successors in interest to Mountney or
Jones were forthcoming.22

The patent to Bold Venture was of then-recent origin. Its
one hundred sixty acres were in the shape of a boot, with the
legging slipped in between Mountney's Neck and Cole's Harbour,
and the foot submerged under the waters of the Northwest Branch.
It had been granted to John Oulton in 1695 and, as was often the
case, its boundaries overlapped with those of its neighbors.
Mountney's Neck was originally described as having a width of one
hundred perches, but apparently the surveyor laid out a tract
with a width of one hundred forty perches. With the legging of
Bold Venture the surveyor purported to reclaim this "surplusage"
for Oulton, and then some.23 Todd's claim to Bold Venture was at
best dubious. The historical record indicates that Captain John
Oulton was still very much alive and still interested in the
patent; in 1707 he would obtain a warrant of resurvey for the
tract. No evidence has been found which links Oulton to James
Todd.24   By 1701 James Todd had pretensions to nine hundred-odd
acres of land lying to the north of the harbor basin. The patents
which he may or may not have consolidated are roughly plotted in
Figure 2.

Todd immediately began to set asunder that which he had
brought together. In March of that year he transferred
approximately three hundred acres to John Hurst. The parcel was

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