MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY                          479

presence of colonists before there should be a direct conflict with the
powerful Duke of York. No question had as yet arisen concerning the
relative rights of William Penn and Lord Baltimore since the grants to
the former were not made until about 15 years later. On paper the
original bounds of Dorchester County undoubtedly extended to Delaware
Bay, but the swiftly-rolling events of the Dutch capitulation, the assump-
tion of authority by the Duke of York, and the subsequent granting of
the territorial rights by him to William Penn did not allow time for
Lord Baltimore to establish by possession his rights to the eastern por-
tion of what might have been Dorchester County according to the terri-
torial limits defined in the Maryland charter. Practically the eastern
limit of Dorchester was the western limit of New Sweden until after the
work of the surveyors in 1761-1768, when Mason and Dixon finally
determined the eastern limits of Maryland which were accepted as such
by the English Chancellor in 1769.

From the date of its erection until the fall of 1684 no change was
made in the boundaries of Dorchester County. Somerset County had
exercised its authority over what is now the Fork District No. 1, or the
territory lying between the northwest (Marshyhope Creek) and the
northeast branches of the Nanticoke River, claiming the former to be
the main branch of the river and consequently its northwestern boundary.
On October 4, 1684, appears the following minute²⁹ on the Proceedings
of the Council:

" Severall disputes haveing been, concerning the maine branch of Nanti-
coke River w^ch is said to be the bounds betweene Somrsett and Dorchester
Counties, for the uncertainty whereof, the bounds of each County have also
been disputed, and severall Errors may thereupon ensue, which to avoid for
the future any to rectifie as much as may be what is past This board passed
this following ordr (viz:)

Somersett and Dorchester County bounds to be ascertained.
Maryland ss:                                                       By the honblie the Councill

Whereas Nantecoke River is said to be the bounds betweene Sommersett
and Dorchester Counties, and there have been many disputes and doubts con-
cerning the maine branch, and it is not sufficiently resolved which it is to
the greate disquiett and disturbance of the Inhabitants there Seated: ffor
redress whereof, and in ordr to settle the same to avoid any future contro-

²⁹ Md. Arch., 17: 286.