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Correspondence of Governor Sharp e. 59
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the 5th of Jany. What I have ordered the Receiver to advance
Mr Evans I propose with your Approbation to replace by the
Income arising from the Naval Office of Pocomoke which is
held & executed in Mr Chamberlaines name whom I have
appointed Naval Officer at Oxford in Succession of Colo Lloyd
who resigned. I have endeavoured as much as possible to
acquaint myself with the Circumstances & Occasion of the
Murder committed by Kittsmiller on the disputed Boundaries ;
Mr Digges & some Witnesses that He brings insist that the
identical Spot on which the Fact was perpetrated was included
within the Courses ran by the Surveyor when the Land was
first taken up, but on having Recourse to the Land Office
whither all Land Warrants are after Execution returned &
entered it manifestly appears that that Spot is not included
within the Bounds as they are there platted & described &
Stevenson the Officer who first Surveyed the Land avers that
he never ran other Courses than were returned to the Land
Office. This is all I can yet discover of the Affair. The Ques-
tion now in debate is whether some Wittnesses that Mr Digges
is to produce will invalidate Stevensons Testimony: Turn that
out as it may, yet as the Pensilvanians had procured a Copy of
the Land platted from the Maryland Land Office & thereby
governed themselves in making Survey of the contiguous
Land as lying in Pensilvania before His Majesty's Order in
Council; I apprehend we cannot proceed to bring the Mur-
therer to justice in this Province: in 1727 Digges obtained a
warrant for 10,000 Acres, part of which Warrant was executed
on 6822 Acres at this place, the other elsewhere; it is sup-
posed that under the patent for this 6822 Acres Digges in-
tended to possess & enjoy the whole 10,000 Acres at least as
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Letter Bk. I.
P. 37
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much Land as lay together worth having but afterwards finding
the Pensilvanians had or were about to make Surveys on &
deprive him of some of the Land on which he had made im-
provements or as he contends that having then first discovered
the Error in the Surveyor's Return He in 1743 applied for a
warrant of Resurvey from the Maryland Office to secure his
improvements & add to his Tract as it was then entered in the
Land Records 3679 Acres more. This warrant the Agent
(not being acquainted with the Patentees intention to make an
addition to His possessions of Land northward of the Tempo-
rary Line & having before given the Surveyor general orders
not to make any Surveys beyond such Limits) without hesita-
tion granted, & it was on this additional resurveyed Land that
the Murder was committed — I was very uneasy at not being
able to transmit the Rental Books more speedily but have
taken care to have as many as were compleated sent by this
same conveyance & hope the Rent Rolls for the remaining
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p. 38
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