468                           THE COUNTIES OF MARYLAND

district number seven and Manchester district number
six; and all that part of said Westminster district number
seven, lying south and east of said division line as above
indicated."
1888 Ch. 337. 13th election district established.

"Commencing at Parr's spring and running northeast
in the middle of the Patapsco river to the point of the
entrance of Gillis falls in said river; thence with said
falls to where the Cabbage spring branch enters said
falls; thence west with said branch to the Roop road;
thence with a straight line to the plank bridge on the
Buffalo road, opposite Albert Jones' gate; thence in a
southwestern direction, along the line between Frederick
and Carroll counties, to the place of beginning, Parr's
spring."

CECIL COUNTY.

Cecil County includes one of the oldest, if not the oldest, settlements
made within the present limits of Maryland, although no habitation
marks its site at the present time. It appears probable that as early as
1627-28 the followers of William Claiborne established a trading post on
Palmer's Island (now known as Garrett Island and formerly called
Watson Island, at the mouth of the Susquehanna River). No further
settlements of importance were made in Cecil County until after the
treaty with the Susquehanna Indians concluded in 1652. The more
settled conditions resulting from the treaty caused a movement of the
population toward the head of the Chesapeake from the settled portions
of Maryland and from the Delaware River. In 1658 the first settlement
was made on Carpenter Point near the mouth of Principio Creek. A
year or so later Augustine Herrman settled on Bohemia Manor and soon
the estuaries of the Elk and Sassafras rivers were marked by numerous
plantations. By the middle of the eighth decade the population was suf-
ficient to warrant the setting off of that portion of Baltimore County
lying east of the Chesapeake into a new unit named in honor of the aged
proprietor, Cecil, Lord Baltimore. A proclamation issued on the 6th of
June, 1674, runs as follows: