MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY                          513

over the growing settlements about the mouth of the Choptank. No
exact limits separating these two counties can be given as the order or
Act by which Talbot was erected has not been found, the earliest refer-
ence to the same being the temporary appointment of Mr. Moyses Stag-
well as sheriff of Talbot County February 18, 1661-2, upon which date
there were also appointed county commissioners (Md. Arch., 1:425;
3:448). The only exception to this generalization that Eastern Bay
was the dividing line appears to be with regard to Poplar Island, which
was joined to Kent County according to the following enactment passed
the 24th September, 1657 (Md. Arch., 1: 361) :

" It is Enacted and declared in the Name of his highness the Lord pro-
tector of England &c and by the Authority of this present Generall Assembly
That the Island commonly called Poplers Island Lying near unto the Island
of Kent be adjoyned unto the County of Kent, and from hence forth be of all
persons so accounted, and taken to be ....."

Subsequently by proclamation,* dated June 21, 1671, "the northeast
side of Chester as far as the bounds of Talbot county were formerly on
that side " was added to Kent county. The first sharp statements of the
boundary line between Talbot and Kent, occur in the Act passed May 22,
1695, which enacted

" That from and after the Twenty third day of April next [1696] after the
end of this present Sessions of Assembly the Island of Kent shall be added
to and made part of Talbott County and Deemed reputed and Taken as part
thereof And That that part of Talbott County lying on the North side of
Corsecia Creek running up the main Eastern Branch to the head thereof
and then with a Course drawn East to the out .side of this Province shall be
the Southerly Bounds of the County of Kent and on the North by the County
of Cecil any Law Statute or usage heretofore to the Contrary notwith-
standing."

By this Act Kent Island, which had given the name to the county,
was removed from its jurisdiction and the name Kent became limited
to the territory which had subsequently been settled.

The northern boundary of Kent County was first determined by proc-
lamation of Charles Calvert on the 6th of June, 1674, when it was decreed

"that from the mouth of the Susquehanough River and so downe the
easterne side of Chesepeake Bay to Swan point and from thence to- Hell point
and so up Chester River to the head thereof "

* Kent County Land Rec, Lib. A, No. 1, p. 54.
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