" determined by breach of the original condition, expressed
" or implied in the original donation. In the one case there
" were no heirs subsisting of the blood of the first
" feudatory or purchaser, to which heirs alone the grant of the
" feud extended: In the other, the tenant, by perpetrating
" an atrocious crime, shewèd that he was no longer to be
" trusted as a vassal, having forgotten his duty as a subject;
" and therefore forfeited his feud, which he held under the
" implied condition that he should not be a traitor or felon.
" The consequence of which in both cases was that the
" gift, being determined, resulted back to the lord who gave
" it:" In this account of the principle of Escheat,
Blackstone speaks of it as a consequence of the tenure in
Chivalry, but it is presumed to have been suffered to remain as
an incident to socage tenure by the Act of Parliament
already mentioned.
CHAPTER III.
CONDITIONS OF PLANTATION, PROCLAMATIONS,
ORDERS, &c.
HAVING thus traced the origin and early history of
The Province of Maryland; having noticed the most
important articles of the Charter, and endeavoured to explain the
tenure under which it was granted, and the immunities which
it conferred; having also given some account of the
measures adopted by the Proprietary for realizing the intention
of his grant, by obtaining the possession or the uncontested
ownership of Lands for the purpose of settlement, we are
next to consider the method pursued, and the inducements
held out, for procuring the emigration of Adventurers, as
the early settlers were appropriately called. This was by
proposals made and published under the hand and seal of the
Proprietary in England by the title of Conditions of
Plantation, for which the settlement of the elder Colonies had
undoubtedly furnished precedents both in form and substance.
The first of these appears by various references to have been
published in the year 1633, and the terms therein
" propounded" and promised are to be inferred from the grants
subsequently directed to be made to those persons who had
become entitled to Land under those first conditions; but
the document itself is not found on record, and probably
never was recorded or published in this country. The oldest
conditions of Plantation on record are dated at Portsmouth
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