CHAPTER III
 

^HE first settlers arrived in our valley while
the border disputes between the Provinces
of Maryland and Pennsylvania were at
their height. This dispute about the
boundary line between the two Provinces, which
was 'not settled until after a most elaborate
instrument had been executed on the 4ith of
July, 1760, involved the settlers of the disputed
territory in many bloody affrays and in much
perplexity. Its final settlement, which was not
consummated until Mason and Dixon's Line
had been laid out in 1767, gave the colonists
peace but deprived Maryland of a large and most
valuable strip of territory which was justly a por¬
tion of her domain. According to the claim of
Lord Baltimore the Maryland hue would have run
due west from a point on the Delaware river
which would have thrown the southern part of
the City of Philadelphia within his territory.

In giving a correct sketch of the disputes
which were settled by the running of Mason
and Dixon's Line, it is necessary to refer to
matters foreign to our County and to "our present
purpose. But as this famous line is the northern
boundary of our county, and our County was so
deeply concerned and affected by its final settle¬
ment, it is deemed well to give a short sketch of
the whole boundary in question as far as it affects
our northern line. The line which divides Mary¬
land from Delaware, is also a portion of Mason
and Dixon's line. But the name is generally un¬
derstood to refer simply to the northern boundary
line of Maryland, the line which was a household
word throughout the United States for nearly fifty
 

years, the line dividing free States from the
slave holding States.

In the grant to Lord Baltimore by Charles
I the northern limit of the Province was "unto
that part of the Bay of Delaware on the north,
which lieth under the fortieth degree of latitude,
where New England is terminated; and all the
tract of land within the following limits to-wit:
passing from the said Delaware Basin a right line
with the degree aforesaid, unto the true meridian
of the first fountain of the river Potomac, thence
running towards the south unto the further banks
of said river &c." The proper location of the first
fountain of the Potomac, and whether the first
fountain of the North branch or the South branch
was intended, involved the Colony, and afterwards
the State, in a protracted controversy with Vir-
- ginia which was finally settled in favor of the
claims of the latter state. With that controversy,
however, we are not concerned in this history.

It w-ill be observed that the Province of Mary¬
land extended to the southern line of New Eng¬
land. Under that name was included the im¬
mense grant to the Plymouth Company of all the
North American Continent between the 40th and
48th degrees of north latitude; that territory ex¬
tended from the latitude of Philadelphia to a point
many miles north of the City of Quebec and
included all the Great Lakes, the Provinces of
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ottawa
besides about a third of the whole present terri¬
tory of the United States. Within the territory
was included the New Netherlands, claimed by
the Dutch by virtue of Henry Hudson's discovery.