376 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

Letter Bk. IV

publick Office to attend can devote their whole Time to the
Collection of such Rents & do themselves what the Sheriffs
must necessarily leave to be done by their Deputies we have
agreed to take the Farming of the Quit Rents entirely out of
the Sheriffs hands as soon as responsible Persons in the
several Counties can be found to farm them, & in order to
make it worth the while of such Persons to engage we pro-
pose to include two of the small Counties in one Farm. M^r
Tasker when we were proceeding last year to build an Office
or Repository for your Ldps Agent offered to sell your Ldp
for that purpose a Piece of Ground more conveniently situated
than that which the Agent had bought of M^r Carroll We
accepted his offer & the Office is accordingly built thereon, so
that if your Ldp pleases the other Lott might be reconveyed
to M^r Carroll who is willing to take it back at the Price the
Agent gave for it. Your Ldp would see by the Copy of the
Commissioners Proceedings at their last Meeting that lest
Running the Dividing Line beyond the Alleganny Mountains
should give Umbrage to the Indians it was agreed that Appli-
cation should be made to them by S^r Will^m Johnson for their
Consent which S^r William at the Expence of £300 sterling
has undertaken to do, but is not certain that he shall obtain it
as some Circumstances have lately made them very jealous;
if the Indians Consent the Surveyors will have orders to pro-
ceed with the Line as soon as the Weather will permit other-
wise we shall I suppose discharge them as soon as the Boundary
Stones or Obelisks which M^r Hamersley tells me were pre-
paring can be set up. M^r Hamersley having signified to Me
in his Letter of the 8^th of Nov^r that your Ldp hath lately
received an Intimation but not from any of your Officers of
some late Attempts to dispossess you of Talbot Mannour &
that no Steward has been yet appointed to receive the Rents
tho there is £1000 stg in Arrear & the Tenants are willing to
pay at least upon a proper Indemnity against the late Claimant
I cannot help observing to your Ldp that so long ago as the
10^th of July 1765 I gave M^r Calvert Notice that such an Attempt
was making by one Maypother who afterwards returned to
Europe without effecting any Thing but 'tis said he is expected
out again this Summer with some Paper or Proof which the
Lawyers it seems told him was essential. At the time I
mentioned this Affair to M^r Calvert I desired him as I had
before furnished him with all the Information I could get
relative to the Circumstances of that Mannour to take Advice
& inform me what Steps were to be taken in Case Maypother
should make farther Attempts or the people who were in pos-
session should refuse paying Rents to your Ldps Agent. At
that time however there was a Steward but what Rents were