Black & Jenkins Award,1877,
msa_sc_5330_8_12
, Image No.: 24
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Black & Jenkins Award,1877,
msa_sc_5330_8_12
, Image No.: 24
   Enlarge and print image (45K)          << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
23 run east to the sea we go far belocv the marked line; if we begin at the marks and run west to the bay we reach the Annamessex, which is equally wide of the fixed ter- minus at that end. Yet by one way as much as by the other we -follow the agreed line of the commissioners. We reconcile these contradictions, and carry out the whole agreement, if we run the east line from Watkins Point until it begins to conflict with the marked line, and from there to the ocean let the marked line be taken for the exclusively true one. Plainly, it never was intended by the commissioners or anybody else that the territory west of the Pocomoke should be divided by a line extending westward from Hol- ston's to the mouth of the Annamessex. If that was the technical effect of the agreement it was instantly repudi- ated by the common consent of both provinces. Maryland had held before and continued afterwards to hold and possess all the territory between the Pocomoke and the bay down to the latitnde of Watkins Point, granting the lands, taxing them in the hands of her grantees, and ruling all the inhabitants according to her laws and customs: Her jurisdiction was not intermitted nor any of her rights sus- pended for a moment. Virginia never expressed a suspi- cion that this possession of Maryland was inconsistent with any right of hers under the agreement. Scarborough him- self acquiesced in it to the day of leis death as a true con- struction of his covenants with Culvert. Our conclusion is that V irgluia, by the agreement and' her undisturbed occupancy, has an undoubted title to the land east of the Pocomoke as far north as the Scarborough and Culvert line, while Maryland, by the charter and by her continued possession under it, has a perfect right to the territorv west of the Pocomoke and north of Watkins Point. - We must now go back to Smith's Island. That island is clearly north of the charter line, and all the rights which Virginia had there must depend on the proofs which she is able to give of her possession. The commissioners, agents,