MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY                             539

fore-runner of Calvert County, to which it was changed a few years later.
As the maps show, St. Mary's County at this time was settled only a
short distance into the woods from the shores of the Potomac, and the
northern limits of its jurisdiction followed the divide between the
Patuxent and Potomac drainage. Anne Arundel County was also
erected from portions of St. Mary's County in 1650 to accommodate the
new settlements made on the shores of the Severn. This new county
may possibly have included one or two inhabitants who had formerly
been counted in St. Mary's County, but it is doubtful if settlements on
the Patuxent River had passed the mouth of Lyons Creek at that early
day. The settlements on the Severn were made during the year preceding
the erection of Anne Arundel County.

The Puritan government of 1654-1656 changed the names of the
three counties on the Western Shore since the originals flavored too
strongly of Eomanism. For a short time St. Mary's County was officially
known as Potomac County.

The year 1658 marks the limitation of St. Mary's County on the
west by the erection of the new Charles County. This is evidenced by an
order in Council dated April 13, 1658 (Md. Arch., 3:308), and the
references to a sheriff of Charles County in the early part of 1659.
This new county probably included part of the territory embraced in the
older Charles County on the Patuxent River. The record of the limits
established at this time have not been found. The present definition
of the western boundary of St. Mary's County is found in the general
Act of Assembly of 1695. This Act was introduced on the 21st of May
and was passed on the following day. According to its terms

"from & after the Twenty third day of Aprill next being St Georges Day
after the end of the present Session of Assembly .... the bounds of St
Marys County shall begin att Point Look out and Extend it Selfe up Potomock
River to the Lower Side of Birds Creek and so over by a Straight line
Drawn from the head of the maine branch of the said Birds Creek to the
head of Indian Creek in Putuxent River and which falls into Putuxent River
including all that Land lying between Putuxent and Potomock Rivers from
the lower part of the said two Creeks and branches of Birds and Indian Creek
by the line aforesaid and Point Look out as aforesaid."

This definition of the county boundaries holds to-day, and St. Mary's