Excerpts from The Papers of George Mason, 1725-1792

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

1782 Documents

19 Oct. 1782 To Edmund Randolph, pp. 746-756.

[This long letter contains more discussion of Virginia's claim to western lands, none of which discussion has anything to do with Maryland. However, GM does mention briefly the Virginia Charter and his earlier appointment to settle the jurisdiction of the Potomac with Maryland:]

pp. 754-755: "I have not bye me Copys of the Virginia Charters in 1606 & 1609, or I shou'd have made some Remarks on them, endeavouring to shew that . . . the Charter of 1609 [was] confirming & enlarging, not destroying that of 1606; that tho' the Virginia Company was dissolved, and the Government resumed by the Crown, the Charter, so far as the Setlers & their Posterity are interested or affected, remains valid; and among other things, the Covenant in the Charter of 1606 that no new Colony shou'd be setled to the westward; which seems to have been one of the Causes of the great western Extension of the second Charter; whereby the repetition of the former Clause became unnecessary; . . . that the Charter granted to the Colony of Virginia in 1667, by King Charles the second, has Reference to the Country described in the former Charter of 1609; . . . that the Crown has always considered the Charter of 1667 in this Light, and acted accordingly, until the present Reign; when all Reverence to Law & Justice was thrown aside, and a Resolution formed to abolish the ancient Constitution of the Colonies, annihilate their Charters, and establish Despotism & Slavery in their Stead; that the Proclamation of 1763 [limiting jurisdiction to land east of the Appalachians] therefore was absolutely illegal & void. . . ."

"The Charters I presume may all be found in the House of Delegates Office: I had them all in my Possession (made up in one Bundle) when I was formerly appointed to settle some Matters of Jurisdiction in Chesapeake Bay and Potomack River with the State of Maryland; but our Assembly not thinking it prudent to enter into any Engagement with that State, while it refused confederating, I returned the Charters into the House of Delegates, at the Clerk's Table."

[It should be useful to examine any records of that earlier deliberation of the Virginia Assembly.]