Excerpts from The Papers of George Mason, 1725-1792

Robert A. Rutland, ed., 3 vols. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1970).

1778 Documents

[14 Jan. 1778] A Bill for Settling Land Titles, pp. 414-422.

p. 415: ". . . and where two or more persons shall claim the same Land under different Surveys, the person claiming under that Survey which was first actually made shall have the Preference."

[This point isn't much on topic, except to show that Virginia recognized the rights of prior claimants to land.]

[12 Dec. 1778] Resolutions Calling for a Conference to Determine the Pennsylvania-Virginia Boundary Line, pp. 457-458.

"Resolved, That the southern boundary offered by the Pennsylvania Assembly, is inadmissible; and that no part of the offer heretofore made by the Assembly of this Commonwealth, is, or ought to be, binding upon Virginia, unless the whole had been, or shall be, accepted by the Assembly of Pennsylvania."

Ed. note: Wrangling over the southern Pennsylvania-Virginia boundary and its westward extension had been a discordant note since the early days of the Revolution. A temporary boundary line had been proposed by the Virginia Convention of 1776, but the problem grew more complex as settlers pushed into the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. . . . GM served on the committee studying the question in 1776 and his proposal was adopted by the Convention on 17 Dec. (q.v.). . . . A final survey of the boundary was delayed until 1784-1785.