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by their articles of agreement and by subsequent surveys.
Culvert and Scarburgh seem to have agreed to the lo-
cation of the Point, and then to have guessed where a
line extending eastwards from it would cut the Pocomoke
River some four miles away. Only between this river
and the ocean did they actually survey and mark the
boundary.
III
FIRST FOUNTAIN OF' THE POTOMAC
i698-I776.
The boundary dispute centers around the location of
Watkins Point on the eastern and the determination of
the first fountain of the Potomac River on the western
end of the line separating Maryland and Virginia. In
view of the work of Culvert and Scarburgh in 1668, the
controversy respecting Watkins Point remained in abey-
ance for a time. The location of the first fountain of the
Potomac became an issue between Lord Baltimore and
the claimants of the Northern Neck. This was a portion
of Virginia granted to the Earl of St. Albans and others
in 1649, also in 1669 by King Charles Ii, and comprised
the territory between the rivers Rappahannock and Po-
tomac. The patent was merely a grant of title to land,
and by the terms of that instrument matters of jurisdic-
tion and government were reserved to the Virginia au-
thorities.3I Lord Fairfax became possessed of the
Northern Neck by his marriage with the daughter of
Lord Thomas Culpepper to whom a new grant had been
made in 1688 by King James II.
In i73o, the Virginia House of Burgesses made -a com-
plaint to the King, and stated that the head springs of
the Rappahannock and Potomac were not yet known.
I These grants are recited in " Statutes at Large," by W. W,
Hening, voi. II. pp. 523-5T9. and in "De Jamette P•" I67S.
No. y¢.
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