The Lower House. 371

ing from those Indians but that Liberty being deny'd him,
for the Ill Consequences that had been found to attend such
practices, he then Made his Application to the Lord Prop^ry
and very artfully Insinuated in his Case, that his Lands were
not Included within the bounds of the Tract Mentioned in the
Act of 1669 Marked H. H. but the Gentⁿ was not so Ingenious
as to Inform his Lordship that his Lands were Included
within the Limits of the Chiccocoan Town Reserved to the
Nanticoke Indians in 1668, and more particularly in the Year
1678 and at length Invested In the said Indians by Act of
Assembly in 1698 long before his purchase or Maj^r Hicks
devise to him of any the Lands in Question.
This Committee upon Inspection into the papers of M^r
Isaac Nicholls of Dorchester County, do find the facts relat-
ing to the Manner and Validity of his Purchase from the
Indians to be very Unfairly represented to his Lordship in the

L. H. J.

Case laid before us for he therein hath very Industriously
Concealed all those Circumstances, which were previous to
his purchase, and would have proved the unreasonableness
of it, as well as the particular Motives which after Induced
the Legislature to Annull and make void his Deed and totally
to Restrain any kind of Allienation for Nanticoke or Chop-
tank Indian Lands for the future, whether by Lease or pur-
chase for the frequent Complaints of the Indians to the Gov-
ernour and Councell, as well as to the two Houses of Assembly
have arisen either from purchases Leases or other Incroach-
ments made upon the Indians Limits, the Source of all our Late
Differences with the Indians, for Prevention whereof, and
to put an End to all those Disputes which have been a great
Interruption to Business and a vast Charge to the Publick of
this Province, the Legislature Impowered the Governour for
the time being to Appoint Commissioners to Ascertain the
bounds of the Indians Lands and for Determining all Differ-
ences between the English and them, in Pursuance whereof
Philemon Lloyd Esq^r Coll^o Richard Tilghman and Coll^o Mat-
thew Tilghman Ward in Novem^r 1721 did lay out and Ascer-
tain the Exterior Boundaries of the Choptank Indian Lands
reserved to them by Act of Assembly Anno 1669 marked
A: A: and Considering how small a part of that Large tract
of Land either by Sales, Leases, or other Incroachments
made by the English was then left to those Indians to make
Corn upon, The Commission^rs afores^d thought it a part of

their Duty, and for the publick Service of the Country to

give such publick Notice to the Inhabitants Contigious to
the Indian- Tract aforesaid (of which M^r Isaac Nicholls was
one) as might prevent the purchasing, Leasing or any other

p. 73