RESOLUTIONS. 1831.

or territory of land between the rivers Potomac and Rap-
pahannock, and the line now marked from the head spring
of the said river Potomac to the head spring of the Rappa-
hannock, commonly called the Conway, in which said tract
or territory of land as is before described, many adventur-
ers and planters have taken up great quantities of land, and
obtained grants and patents thereof from the Crown under
seal of this colony; And whereas, the said Thomas Lord
Fairfax hath consented before the King in Council, that
the several grants and patents made by the Crown of the
lands included in the boundary aforesaid, should be con-
firmed to the several grantees, their heirs and assigns."
The judgment of the King as recited in this act, although
it is not so precise in the location, as the letters patent to
Fairfax, ought nevertheless to be taken, as intending to fix
the limits according to the letters patent. The judgment
says, "that the said letters patent do include all that tract or
territory of land between the rivers Potomac and Rappa-
hannock:" the letters patent, "all that entire tract, territory,
or parcel of land, situate, lying and being in America, and
bounded within the heads of the rivers Rappahannock and
Quiriough or Potomac river." Now it is fair to presume
that the King intended nothing more than "the heads of the
rivers Rappahannock and Quiriough or Potomac river,"
when he used the words, "between the rivers Potomac and
Rappahannock." At all events in the opinion of your com-
mittee it gave no authority to plant the Fairfax stone on the
North Branch, where it is now found. That was an atter
thought, and a contrivance by two interested parties, who
had previously made litigation before the King for their
mutual benefit. But it seems this act of seventeen hundred
and forty-eight, intended to make the King declare in his
judgment, that the boundaries of the several letters patent
granted unto the ancestors of Fairfax extended to all that
tract or territory of land between the rivers Potomac and
Rappattannock, to enable Virginia and Fairfax to plant a
stone at the head of the North Branch, when by the origi-
nal grant itself it was limited to "all that entire tract, ter-
ritory or parcel of land, situate, lying and being in Ameri-
ca, and bounded within the heads of the rivers Rappahan-
nock and Potomac." It is plain such a judgment with the
construction given to it by Virginia and Fairfax was net
authorised bythe original letters patent, which were better
defined and understood. But being in a controversy of Vir-
ginia on one side, who was interested in extending her ju-
risdiction, and Lord Fairfax on the other, who was inter-
ested in the increase of his lands, it is not at all surprising