Black & Jenkins Award,1877,
msa_sc_5330_8_12
, Image No.: 38
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Black & Jenkins Award,1877,
msa_sc_5330_8_12
, Image No.: 38
   Enlarge and print image (46K)          << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
38 calls of Lord Baltimore's charter, which they admit calls for a straight line from the Chesapeake bay to the At- lantic. They are obliged to meander along the Pocomoke bay and river more than four miles north of an east line from Cedar straits to the line e~tablislled in 1668 by Cal- vert and Scarburg, and follow that line from the Pocomoke river east to the ocean, and to admit, first, that their line is not the true charter line, arid second, to claim that the Calvert and 8'carburg line of 1668 is not the true charter line, though they adopt it in order to sustain their theory that the pointi at Cedar straits is the 11 Watkins Point" of Lord Balti- more's charter. I assert that no man could take Smith's History and map, with the description of the country for fifteen miles north and south of Cedar straits, as given in the Maryland statement of this case, arid locate the 11 Wat- kins Point" of Lord Baltimore's charter at Cedar straits, even if no line had been run by Calvert and Scarburg; and when in addition to this it is shown that, more than two hundred years ago, commissioners appointed by the highest authority in Maryland and Virginia did in fact run a divisional line between the colonies straight from the Chesapeake bay to the ocean on what was then decided and settled to be the charter line, which strikes the Ches- apeake about four miles north of Cedar straits at a point which has all the requirements of the 11 Watkins Point" of Smith's Histoi,r and map, it. seems to me that the as- sumption that Cedar straits is the true «Watkins Point" cannot be maintained, conceding the possession by Mary- land of the point of land south of the true charter line, which is explained on grounds easily understood, without doing violence to the well-settled facts in the case. In order to present my views clearly I will be compelled to give it somewhat detailed statement of the causes which led to the Calvert and Scarburg survey arid agreement; an explanation of its true meaning, arid the protraction of its line west over Smith's Island, and east to the sea. The true divisional line between Maryland and Virginia, from the Chesapeake Bay to the ocean, became the sub-