time to take account of the shifting physical boundary between
land and water. Blackstone said: "as to land gained from the sea
... the law is held to be, that if this gain is little by little,
by small imperceptible degrees, it shall go to the owner of the
land adjoining." But suppose the gain was artificially induced,
or the result of a sudden storm: what rules should then obtain?113

Waterfront development on the other side of town would bring
these questions to court. East of Harford Run, between Plowman's
Addition and Fell's Point remained a mud flat, washed by the
tides and ready to be wharfed out or filled in. Its development
potential had been recognized almost one hundred years before
when, in 1695, John Oulton included the submerged land in his
patent for Bold Venture.114

Title to the adjacent fast land had been settled in the
17507s and 60's. Thomas Sligh consolidated ownership to what had
once been Mountney's Neck to the west, and the Fell Family
perfected their claim to Fell's Prospect to the east. John
Cornthwaite succeeded Thomas Sligh's interest, and in the 1770's
was busily subdividing the waterfrontage into town lots.  The
Fell family was likewise selling ninety-nine year ground leases
in lots along Bond Street on the western shore of Fell's
Prospect. "5

The lot holders were intent on improving over the wetlands
into the navigable water. Such projects had the encouragement of
the Act of 1745, which offered ownership of the improvement as a
reward, but the plain geometry was such that there was bound to

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