MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY                          477

The area included between this line and the Potomac River became
a part of Charles County as it is to-day.

CHARLES COUNTY ELECTION DISTRICTS.

1798  Ch. 115. County divided into 4 election districts.

1799  Ch. 48. Confirms Act of 1798 Ch. 115.

1799 Ch. 50. Commission appointed to divide county into 4 election dis-
tricts.

1819 Ch. 157. Polling place of 2d election district at Allen's Fresh changed.

1856 Ch. 174. County Commissioners authorized to appoint examiners to
lay off a new election district.

1868 Ch. 138. Commission appointed to divide county into not less than 6
nor more than 9 election districts.

1870 Ch. 264. Amends Act of 1868 Ch. 138 giving County Commissioners the
right to change lines of electipn districts upon petition.

DORCHESTER COUNTY.

The lowlying shores of Taylor's Island immediately across the Bay
from the Patuxent River and the deeply-indented estuary of the Chop-
tank early attracted the colonists toward the Eastern Shore, but the
activity of the Indians and the isolation from their neighbors prevented
for a time any extensive settlements. Even the first Delegate, Eichard
Preston, elected in response to the call of 1669 appears to have lived not
in Dorchester, where he owned large tracts of land, but on the shores of
the Patuxent River. By 1659 considerable land had been surveyed on
the shores of the Choptank, Taylor's Island, about Tar Bay, and the
Honga River, and on either side of the straits. It is estimated that
there were at that time in the territory which now is included within
Dorchester County at least 500 inhabitants, as more than 100 settlers
are shown from the rent rolls of that period.²⁵

It is not known exactly when Dorchester County came into being. The
records now extant show no act of Assembly or fiat of the proprietor
erecting the same. Certain facts point to October 22, 1668, as the date
of its erection. The first evidence of its existence lies in the writ
issued to Eaymond Stapleford on the 4th of February, 1669, by Governor

²⁵ Jones: History of Dorchester County, p. 52.