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Session
Laws
[Ch. VI, X,
XIV,
XVIII,
XXI, XXII
of Acts this
Session
printed in
Vol. 35 of
Archives,
beginning at
p. 186]
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Access to the Lands-Records of this Province, and made large Ab-
stracts therefrom of the Rights of vast Quantities of Land that
have long continued in the peaceable and uninterupted Possession of
the present Possessors; and with Intent to impose on the Right
Honourable the Lord Proprietary, laid before his Lordship the
Abstract of several considerable Tracts of Land granted to one
Thomas Cornwallis, Esq; formerly a Person residing within this
Province, (many of which Tracts have been Sold by the said
Thomas Cornwallis) pretending a Right thereto by Purchase or
Descent; which Abstract was Signed John Evans, Attorney, as a
Person attesting the same to be true; whereas there was not any
Attorney in Maryland, nor hath been (if ever) in a great many
Years, of that Name; and never any that had Recourse to the Rec-
ords: So that the said Abstract appears evidently to be a Forgery
and Imposition.
And, forasmuch as it appears that during the Time of such his
the said Riddlesden's Access, there were some Parts of the Records
found cut out, and for some Defects of Assignments or in other
Measne Conveyances, which probably were occasioned by the male
Practice of the said Riddlesden, or such like evil-designing Persons.
And whereas the said Riddlesden has been known to personate
others, and has now produced sundry pretended Deeds of Sale to
several of the Clerks of the County-Courts to be recorded; and
made Demands of the Possessions of sundry Persons whose Lands
he pretends to have bought: And for that such Purchasing cannot
be free from the Imputation of Champerty; if made by real Deeds,
but that in Truth, the Deeds he pretends to hold by, are by the- most
discerning Persons, and of the best Credit, justly suspected to be
forged: And for that it would be impracticable to detect such For-
gery, if the Deeds themselves should be withdrawn from such
Officers, so as to leave authentick Record thereof, without leav-
ing the original Deeds that the Hand-Writing of the pretended
Grantors may be seen: And for that it is easy for such a Person, by
calling himself by the Name of another, and executing a Deed by
such Name, to one of his Companions in a strange Place, to obtain
such fraudulent Deed to be witnessed by Men of good Credit, who
may (as they think) safely swear before a Magistrate, that they
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p. 264
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saw the Person signing, seal and deliver that Deed (tho' they may
be wholly nescient whether the Person so signing signs by his own
Name, or by the Name of One he so fraudulently personates,) and
by that Means obtain such Probat of false Deeds, as may make an
undoubted Evidence of a Title, after the original Deeds are de-
stroyed, which in this Case the said Vanhaesdonck Riddlesden may
easily do, if he has the Deeds redelivered him by the Clerks.
And whereas there is criminal Process out against him, on One
or more Indictments found against him in this Province some Years
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