deny permission for wharves, or other beneficial improvements
within or without the line.128

Samuel Purviance, who was named president of the port
wardens, immediately seized the opportunity to capture a monopoly
on the mouth of the Falls. His trading partner, Nathaniel Smith,
had already obtained a warrant of resurvey (1783) to Bond's
Marsh. Not satisfied with the four-acre island contained within
the ancient metes and bounds, they added to it seventeen and one-
half acres of vacant land contiguous thereto which was within the
Port Warden's line, so that the 1783 patent to Bond's Marsh
Resurveyed embraced twenty-one acres, covered and uncovered by
the confluence of the Jones Falls and Northwest Branch.129

Since the patent was a resurvey, it was arguably exempt from
the legislative prohibition against new grants within five miles
of Town. Since the patentees did not disclose that the seventeen
and one-half acre contiguous vacancy was beneath navigable water,
the land office had no qualms about issuance of the patent. It
appeared as if Purviance and his partners had finagled exclusive
rights on the entrance to the Jones Falls (Figure 15).

It was not to be, however. In 1783 Thomas Yates applied to
the Port Wardens for permission to wharf out from Philpot's Point
into the basin. Over president Purviance's objections Yates was
granted a license. Purviance claimed title to the land beneath
Yates' wharves, and fought Yates' plans every step of the way.
The issue was finally resolved in Yates' favor when the Court of
Chancery found the patent to Bond's Marsh Resurveyed had been

49	.       .   .