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bly of this Province in that Case made and Provided, That then,
and in such Case, the aforesaid County-Court of Baltemore is and
stands hereby adjourned from the appointed Day in June, until
such a Day in August following, as such Court ought to have been
adjourned to; and that the said County-Court of Talbot be and
stands hereby adjourned until the last Tuesday in July next, any
Law, Statute or Custom to the contrary, notwithstanding.
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Session
Laws
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An Act for ascertaining the Bounds of Land within this Province.
Forasmuch as at the first Settlement of this Province the Heathen
Indian Enemies were so very Numerous and barbarous, that both
the Persons desirous to purchase Land, and to settle and Inhabit the
same, and also the Surveyors appointed by the Right Honourable
the Lord proprietary to survey and lay out such Lands to the said
Persons, were detained from making so strict a scrutiny into the
true Scituation of the several Rivers, Creeks and Branches of this
Bay, so as to prevent the Interference of the Bounds limited and ap-
pointed by the said Surveyors, for each Tract, and from setting of
the Courses or Measuring the true Distances of Lines directed to
run to the several Trees or other Bounds there prescribed to limit
and bound the said several Tracts of Land, and also the Surveyors
themselves so appointed, were too often both very Ignorant and
negligent in performing their Duty therein; And also forasmuch as
the bounded Trees by them formerly bounded, for very many of the
said former Surveyors, are dead, and so far lost and forgotten, that
no remains or Memory are left of the same, and the other Bounda-
ries, either of Bays, Rivers, Creeks or Branches, as also of Courses
and Distances, so darkly and Unskilfully exprest, that many great
Controversies and suits have been and are daily moved thereupon,
and no certain Method, as yet, being prescribed for the speedy deter-
mination thereof, but a Course at Common Law, and Tryal by Juries
in the Provincial Court, which Juries never having had any View
of the Lands in debate, so as to be made sensible of the true Scitu-
ation of them (whereby the true Intent and Meaning of the dark
and Unskilful Expressions of the aforesaid Surveyors are the better
to be understood) cannot possibly give a just Verdict thereupon,
which Occasions most common and frequent Appeals to the superior
Courts, and vast additional Charges thereby accruing, Insupportable
to the Inhabitants of this Province, especially the Poorer Sort, who
are thereby frequently ruined or very much Impoverished, and many
times forced to relinquish and give up their just-Right to their more
Potent Litigious Adversaries, rather than suffer the loss of Time,
fatigue and expence of a long Journey, and a longer and more
tedious Attendance. And forasmuch as the Multitude of Cases
Varying in their several Circumstances will not admit of any Gen-
eral Rule to be prescribed, whereby the Court and jury may adjudge
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1718
Chap.
XVIII
[Evan
Jones' com-
pilation
printed by
Bradford,
1718, p. 206;
the Pro-
prietary
dissented to
this Act]
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