MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY                          443

to this date, and subsequent to it references are frequent. At this time
there were St. Mary's, Calvert, and Anne Arundel and Charles counties
on the Western Shore, and Kent County on the Eastern. The scattered
inhabitants on either side of the bay from the Patapsco and Sassafras
rivers had no nearby county seat in which to transact their business.

The earliest settlements within the territory of the original Baltimore
County were probably those on Palmer's Island at the mouth of the
Susquehanna River where Claiborne and his followers had established
trading settlements as early as 1627-28. In 1652 in the treaty between
the Susquehanna Indians and the Marylanders the right of settlement
had been granted as far north as this point. Settlements subsequent to
that of Claiborne were few and scattered until after the conclusion of
this treaty, but in the decades between 1660 and 1680 the development
of the territory around the shores of the head of the Bay was rapid, much
of it taking place under the leadership of Augustine Herrman, who
became the leading man of the region. Herrman was granted a letter
of denization as early as 1660 and during succeeding years was a jus-
tice of Baltimore County. Settlements were formed at this time along
the shores of Northeast creek and the estuaries off of Elk River and
occasionally tracts were taken up along the shores of what is now Har-
ford County. The center of population for the new county of Baltimore
lay. about the head of the Bay outside of the territory now included
within the present county of the same name.

As early as 1661 the court of Baltimore County was held at Captain
Howell's, near Howell's Point, below the mouth of the Sassafras River.
A few years later, in 1664, Baltimore County court met at Carpenter's
Point on the Northeast River and from 1674 to 1768 the county seat of
Baltimore was within the present confines of Harford County. It was
not until after the election of 1768 that the county seat was situated
within the territory of the present Baltimore County.

Such widely scattered sites for the holding of the county court natur-
ally leads to the question as to what were the original limits of Balti-
more County. No terms are given in the records prior to the procla-
mation of 1674 erecting Cecil County. It is therefore necessary to