404 Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1722 / 3.

             Lib. X. His Excellency laid before this Board a paper entituled A

                  plain view of all that has been done or publickly talked for

                  these twenty years last by past concerning the Boundaries of

                  the Provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania which paper

                  was Ordered to be read and is as follows

               p. 67   Although it be certain that the Northern and Southern

                  Boundaries of the said provinces respectively have not as yet

                  been fixed or determined by any mutual Consent or Agree

                  ment of both the Proprietaries we are nevertheless inform'd

                  with Great Assurance (some of the persons present being yet

                  alive or lately were so) that so soon as Charles Lord Balti

                  more found that the Crown had made a Grant of the Prov

                  ince of Pennsylvania to the late Mr Penn his Lordship

                  thought it Convenient for him to fix the Northern Limits of

                  his Province of Maryland and accordingly in the year 1682

                  being accompanied with his Surveyor General divers Com

                  manders of Ships and Several Gentlemen of Maryland his

                  Lordship came up Chesopeak Bay to Susquehannah River

                  with a Large Instrument for Astronomical Observations and

                  fixed the said Limits as he thought fit himself at or near the

                  mouth of Octaroe River, and from thence Caused an Easter

                  ly Line to be run by his Surveyor Genl unto the River Dele

                  ware, from that time it was universally Believed in Maryland

                  that the Boundaries of that Province were limited to the

                  Northward by the said Easterly Line from the mouth of Oc

                  teraroe River, for in the year 1700 when Mr Penn was travel

                  ling from Below Annapolis to visit the Indians at Conestogoe

                  being out of respect to his Character waited upon by divers

                  Gentlemen Magistrates and others of the Northern parts of

                  Maryland these Gentlemen made a Stop in the Ford of Oc

                  tararoe River telling Mr Penn they had now accompanied him

                  into his own Province and therefore desired to take their

                  Leave but he answered he hoped they had been already in

                  Pennsylvania long before they came to that place, all which

               p. 68   expressions can be very well attested by witnesses still Living

                  who were in that Company During Mr Pens last stay in

                  America vizt in the years 1700 and 1701 the Government of

                  Maryland was then in the Crown and the Inhabitants of the

                  two Provinces were seated so far remote from each other that

                  there was no Occasion to talk of the Boundaries with any

                  earnestness or Contention but soon after Mr Penns departure

                  for England some persons of Chester County in Pennsyl

                  vania applied themselves to those called the Commissioners

                  of Property whom Mr Pen had left in trust with his Proprie

                  tary Affairs for a Grant of that Tract of Land now called

                  Nottingham which then appearing to be Considerably to the