USA > Pennsylvania > Greene County > History of Greene County, Pennsylvania > Part 8
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MTHOUGH feeling a just pride in the prosperity and wonderful I growth of his colony, Penn was not free from tribulations. Language could not be made more explicit than that employed to fix the boundaries of his province. That there might be no mistaking the place which it occupied upon the continent the stars were called to stand as sentinels, and science was invoked to fix the places which they marked. But the ink was scarcely dry upon the parchment which recorded the gift before the whisperings of counter claims were heard. Markham, who was sent forward by Penn as Lieutenant- Governor to take possession of the land and commence surveys upon it, had hardly shaken the salt spray from his locks before he was visited at Chester by Lord Baltimore from Maryland, who presented his claim to all that country.
On the 20th of June, 1632, just fifty years before Penn received his patent, the King had granted to Lord Baltimore a charter for Maryland, named for Henrietta Maria, daugliter of Henry IV. and wife of Charles I., bounded by the ocean, the 40° of north latitude, the meridian of the western fountain of the Potomac, the
·
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
river Potomac from its source to its mouth, and a line drawn east from Watkins Point to the Atlantic, the place of beginning. This territory was given to him, his heirs and assigns, on the payment of a yearly rent of two Indian arrows. Lord Baltimore exhibited his claim to Governor Markham, and to satisfy the latter that his claim was valid, he made an observation of the heavens, which showed that the latitude of Chester was twelve miles south of the 41º north to, which he claimed. Had this claim been allowed, the whole of Delaware bay and river, the three lower counties, now the State of Delaware, the city of Philadelphia, York, Chambers- burg, Gettysburg, indeed the whole tier of southern counties would have been ent off from Pennsylvania. As it will be seen the allow- ance of this claim would have swallowed all the settlements which had been made for three quarters of a century, and all the wonder- ful emigration and growth which had now set in, including the great city which Penn had founded with so much satisfaction, and cherished with his pains and his prayers, as well as the fairest section of his territory.
Markham, on his part, exhibited the Pennsylvania charter, which explicitly provides that the southern boundary shall be the " begin- ning of the 40th degree of northern latitude." But this would have included Baltimore, and even as far south as the city of Washington, embracing all the growth of the Maryland colony for half a century, and would have only left for Maryland a modicum of land west of the Potomac and south of the 40º north along either shore of the lower Chesepeake, about equal to the present State of Delaware. This Lord Baltimore regarded an unendurable hardship, and as his charter ante dated that of Penn by fifty years, he held that the charter of the latter was invalidated, and that his own claim could be maintained.
In this condition matters rested until the coming of Penn. As we have already seen the new proprietary made it his business to visit Lord Baltimore very soon after his arrival npon the Delaware, and for two days the claims of the two governors were talked over and canvassed. But as the weather became cold so as to preclude the possibility of taking observations to fix accurately the latitude and longitude of the place, it was agreed to postpone further con- sideration of the question for the present. A true picture of these two eminent men in this opening controversy would be one of great historical interest. But we can well imagine that while the rep- resentative of Pennsylvania preserved throughout this conference a demeanor that was "childlike and bland," there was in the brain, which the broad-brim sheltered, and in the heart which the shad- bellied coat kept warm, an unalterable purpose not to yield the best portion of his heritage.
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
Early in the spring Penn invited Lord Baltimore to come to the Delaware for the settlement of their differences; but it was late in the season before he arrived. Penn proposed that the hearing be had before them in the nature of a legal investigation with the aid of counsel and in writing. But this was not agreeable to Baltimore, and now he complained of the sultryness of the weather. Before it was too cold, now it was too hot. Accordingly the conference again broke up without anything being accomplished. It was now plainly evident that Baltimore did not intend to come to any agreement with Penn, but would carry his cause before the royal tribunal in London.
Penn now well understood all the conditions of the controversy, and that there were grave difficulties to be encountered. In the first place his own charter was explicit and would give him, if allowed, three full degrees of latitude and five of longitude. On the other hand the charter of Baltimore made his northern boundary the for- tieth degree, but whether the beginning or the ending was not stated. If the beginning, then Maryland would be crowded down nearly to the city of Washington, and Pennsylvania woukl embrace the city of Baltimore and the greater portion of what is now Mary- land and part of Virginia. On the other hand. if the ending of the fortieth degree. then Philadelphia and all the southern tier of counties would have to be given up. By the usual interpretation of language the charter of Baltimore would only give him to the beginning of the fortieth degree. But he had boldly assumed the other interpre- tation, and had made nearly all his settlements above that line. Again it was provided in the charter of Lord Baltimore that the boundaries prescribed should not include any territory already settled. But it was well known that the settlements along the right bank of the Delaware, from the first visit of Hudson in 1609, long before the charter of Baltimore was given, had been made on the territory now claimed by him. On the other hand there were difficulties in construing one portion of the charter of Penn, doubtless caused by the ignorance of the royal secretaries, who drew it, of the geography of the country, there having been no accurate maps showing latitude made at this time. Consequently when they commenced to describe the southern boundary of Penn- sylvania they said, "and on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from New Castle. Northwards and Westwards unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of Northern Latitude; and then by a straight line westwards to the limitt of Longitude above men- tioned," that is to the Panhandle line, as now ascertained. But this circle which is here described at twelve miles distant from New Castle northwards and westwards, to reach the beginning of the for- tieth, would not only have to be extended northward and westward,
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
but southward, and the radius of twelve miles southward would by no means reach the beginning of the fortieth degree, and hence would have to be extended on an arbitrary line still further southward, not provided for in the charter. The royal secretaries seemed to have labored under the impression that New Castle town was abont on the beginning of the fortieth parallel, whereas it was nearly two-thirds of a degree to the north of that line.
It must be confessed that there were many grave difficulties in the way of a satisfactory adjustment of these counter claims, and it is reported that Lord Baltimore, on his first visit to Markham, after having found by observation the true latitude of New Castle, and heard the provisions of Penn's charter read, dolefully but very per- tinently asked: '"If this be allowed, where then is my province?" Baltimore, from the very moment that he discovered what the claims of Penn were, had evidently resolved not to make any effort to come to an agreement with Penn, which is abundantly shown by his frivo- lons exenses for not proceeding to business in their several inter- views; but had determined to pursue a bold policy in pushing the sale of lands on the dispnted tract, constantly assuming that his in- terpretation was the true one, and even opening an aggressive policy. trusting to the maintenance of his claims before the officers of the crown in England.
Accordingly, Baltimore issued proposals for the sale of lands in the lower counties, now the State of Delaware, territory which Penn had seenred by deed from the Duke of York, after receiving his charter from the King, offering cheaper rates than Penn had done. Penn had also learned that Lord Baltimore had sent a surveyor to take an observation and find the latitude of New Castle, had prepared an ex parte statement of his case and was actually, by his agents, pressing the cause to a decision before the Lords of the Committee of Plantations in England, without giving any notice to Penn. Be- lieving in the strong point of possession, Baltimore was determined to pursue a vigorous policy. He accordingly drew up a summons to quit, and sent a messenger, Colonel Talbot, to Philadelphia to "de- mand of William Penn all that part of the land on the west side of the said river that lyeth to the southward of the fortieth degree of north latitude." Penn was absent at the time, and the summons was delivered to the acting Governor, Nicholas Moore. But upon his return the Proprietary made answer in strong but earnest terms, showing the grounds of his own claim and repelling any counter claim. The conduet of Baltimore alarmed him, for 'he saw plainly that if settlers from Maryland entered his province under claim of protection from its Governor, it would very soon lead to actual con- flict for possession. What he feared came to pass sooner than he had anticipated; for in the spring of 1684, in time to put in their erops,
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
a company from Maryland came in force into the lower counties, drove off the peaceable Pennsylvania settlers, and took possession of their farms. Taking the advice of his council, Penn sent a copy of his reply to the demand that Talbot had brought, which he ordered to be read to the intruders, and ordered William Welch, sheriff of the county, to reinstate the lawful owners. He then issued his proclamation reiterating and defending his claims, and warning all intruders to desist in future from such unlawful acts.
As has been previously observed, if Penn should tamely submit to the claim of Baltimore, his entire colony would have been swal- lowed up, and all his labor would have been lost. This result Balti- more seemed determined to effect. To the peaceful, quiet and loving disposition of Penn this contention was exceedingly distasteful. As for quantity of land, he freely declared that he would have had enough if he had retained only the two degrees which would have remained after allowing Baltimore all that he claimed. But he was unwilling to give up the rapidly growing city and colonies which he had founded, and more than all to yield possession of Delaware Bay and river, his only means of communication with the ocean. He foresaw that if the two shores of this noble stream were in the pos- session of hostile States, how easy it would be to make harrassing regulations governing its navigation. But Penn was a man of just and benevolent instinets, and he was willing to make reasonable con- cessions and compromises to secure peace and satisfy his neighbor in Maryland. Accordingly, at one of their interviews Penn asked Balti- more what he would ask per square mile for the territory south of the Delaware and reaching to the ocean, though he already had the deed for this same land from the Duke of York, secured by patent from the King, and Baltimore's own patent expressly provided that he could not claim territory already settled. But this generous offer to repurchase what he already owned, was rejected by the proprietor of Maryland.
Penn now saw but too plainly that there was no hope of coming to a peaceful and equitable composition of their differences in this country, and that if he would secure a decision in his interest he had no time to lose in repairing to London. and personally defending his rights before the royal commission. There is no question but that he came to this decision with unfeigned regret. His colony was prosperous, the settlers were happy and contented in their new homes, the country itself was all that he could wish and he no doubt fondly hoped to live and die in the midst of his people. But the demand for his return to England was imperative, and he prepared to obey it. He accordingly empowered the Provincial Council, of which Thomas Lloyd was president, to act in his stead, and on the 6th of June, 1684, sailed for England. From on board the vessel, before
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
leaving the Delaware, he sent back an address to the council, in which he unbosoms himself freely: "Dear Friends :- My love and my life is to you and with you; and no water can quench it, nor dis- tance wear it out, nor bring it to an end. I have been with you, cared over you, and served you with unfeigned love; and you are beloved of ine and near to me beyond utterance. Oh, that you would eye Him in all, through all, and above all the works of your hands; for to a blessed end are you brought hither. * * * You are now come to a quiet land; provoke not the Lord to trouble it, and now that liberty and authority are with you, and in your lands, let the government be upon his shoulders, in all your spirits; that you may rule for Him, under whom the princes of this world will one day esteem it their honor to govern and serve in their
places. * * And thou Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, named before thou wert born, what love, what service and travail has there been to bring thee forth, and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee!"
Upon his arrival in England, on the 6th of October, he took an . early opportunity to pay his respects to the King, and the Duke of . York, "who received me," he says, "very graciously, as did the min- isters very civilly. Yet I found things in general with another face than I left them-sour and stern, and resolved to hold the reins of power with a stiffer hand than before." In a letter to Lloyd, of the 16th of March, 1685, he says: "The King (Charles I.) is dead, and the Duke succeeds peaceably. Ile was well on the First-day night, being the first of February so called. About eight next morning, as he sat down to shave, his head twitched both ways or sides, and he gave a shriek and fell as dead, and so remained some hours. They opportunely blooded and cupped him, and plied his head with red hot frying-pans. He returned and continned till sixth day noon, but mostly in great tortures. He seemed very penitent, asking pardon of all, even the poorest subject he had wronged. * * He was an able man for a divided and troubled kingdom. The present King was proclaimed about three o'clock that day."
The new king being a personal friend of Penn, he had hopes of favor at court, and did secure many indulgences for his oppressed Friends in the kingdom; but the ministry was bitterly hostile to dissenters, and he found his controversy with Lord Baltimore very difficult of management. Penn now pressed his controversy with Lord Balti- more to a final settlement, and in November, 1685, a decision was made in the English court, compromising the claims of the two Governors, and providing that the portion of territory between the Delaware and Chesapeake bays should be divided by a line through the centre, and that the portion bordering upon the Delaware should belong to Penn, and that upon the Chesapeake to Lord Baltimore.
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
This settled the dispute for the time; but upon attempting to measure and run the dividing line, the language of the act was so indefinite that the attempt was abandoned, and the old controversy was again renewed. Not wishing to press his suit at once, while the memory of the decision already made was green, Lord Baltimore suffered the controversy to rest, and each party laid claim to the territory ad- judged_to him in theory by the royal decree, but without any division line.
On the 28th of April, 1707, the goverment of Maryland presented to the Queen an address asking that an order should be made requiring the anthorities of the two colonies, Maryland and Pennsylvania, " to run the division lines and ascertain the boundaries between them, for the ease of the inhabitants, who have been much distressed by their uncertainty. It would appear that the controversy,-after William Penn in 1685 had secured the lands upon the right bank of the Delaware,-was left to work out its own cure, as a definite agreement was entered into in the life time of the founder that the authorities in neither colony should disturb the settlers in the other, and as the colonies were substantially located originally with a dividing line where the line was subsequently run, the portion of territory on this disputed belt which each was to give up settled itself, and only needed to be specifically defined, surveyed and marked. Repeated conferences were held, and lines run; but nothing satisfactory was accomplished until the 4th of July 1760, when Frederick, Lord Baron of Baltimore, and Thomas, and Richard Penn, sons of the founder, entered into an elaborate and formal treaty by which the limits of the two provinces were provided. The boundary lines were made mathe- matically exact, so that there could by no possibility be further con- troversy, provided surveyors were found who had the skill and the instruments necessary for determining them.
The line was to commence at Cape Henlopen on the Atlantic coast. This cape as originally located was placed on the point oppo- site Cape May at the entrance of Delaware Bay, and Cape Henrietta was fifteen miles down the coast. By an error in the map used by the parties, the names of these two capes had been interchanged, and Henlopen was placed fifteen iniles down the coast. At this mis- taken point, therefore, the division commenced. When this was discovered, a complaint was made before Lord Hardwick; but in a formal decree, promulgated in 1750, it was declared " that Cape Henlopen ought to be deemed and taken to be situated at the place where the same is laid down and described in the maps or plans an- nexed to the said articles to be situated."
This point of beginning having been settled the dividing lines were to be substantially as follows: Commencing at Henlopen on the Atlantic, a due westerly line was to be run to the shores of the
94
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
Chesapeake Bay, found to be 69 miles 298 perches. At the middle of this line a line was to be run in a direction northwesterly till it should form a tangent to the circumference of a circle drawn with a radius of twelve miles from the spire of the Court House in New Castle. From this tangent point a line was to be run due north until it should reach a meridian line 15 miles south of the most southern extremity of Philadelphia, and the point thus reached should be the northeast corner of Maryland. If the dne north line from the tangent point should cut off a segment of a circle from the twelve mnile circuit, then the slice thus cut off should be adjudged a part of New Castle County, and consequently should belong to Pennsylvania. The corner-stone at the extremity of the due north line from the tangent point was to be the beginning of the now famous Mason and Dixon's line, and was to extend due west to the western limit of Maryland.
This settled the long dispute so far as it could be on paper, but to execute its provisions in practice was more difficult. The primeval forest covered the greater part of the line, stubborn mountains stood in the way, and instruments were imperfect and liable to variation. Commissioners were appointed to survey, and establish the lines in 1739, but a controversy having arisen, whether the measurement should be horizontal or superficial, the commission broke up and noth- ing more was done till 1760, when local surveyors were appointed, John Lukens and Archibald MeLean on the part of Pennsylvania, Thomas Garnett and Jonathan Hall for Maryland, who commenced to lay off the lines as provided in the indenture of agreement entered into by the proprietaries. Their first care was to clear away the vistas or narrow openings eight yards wide through the forest. Having aseertained the middle point of the Henlopen line they ran an experimental line north until opposite New Castle, when they measured the radius of twelve miles and fixed the tangent point. There were so many perplexing conditions, that it required much time to perfect their calculations and plant their bounds. After these surveyors had been three years at their work, the proprietaries in England, thinking the reason of their long protracted labors indicative of a laek of scientific knowledge on their part, or lack of suitable instruments, employed, on the 4th of August, 1763, two surveyors and mathematicians to go to America and conduct the work. They brought with them the best instruments procurable at that time-an excellent seetor " six feet radius which magnified twenty-five times, the property of Hon. Mr. Penn, the first which ever had the plumb line passing over and bisecting a point at the centre of the instrument." They obtained from the Royal Society a brass standard measure, and standard chains. These surveyors were none other than Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, names forever blazoned upon the political history of the United States, magnates at
Charles, M. Fillon
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
home, but no more skilled nor more accurate in their work, over mountains and valleys, through the tangled and interminable forests of the American continent, than our own fellow-citizens, McLean and Lukens, and Garnett and Hall, who had preceded them.
The daily field notes of Mason and Dixon commence November 15th, 1763; and the first entry is, " Arrived at Philadelphia;" 16th, " Attended meeting of the commissioners appointed to settle the bounds of Pennsylvania;" 22d to 28th, " Landed and set up instru- ments, and found they had received no damage;" December 5th, " Di- rected a carpenter to build an observatory near the point settled by the commissioners to be the south point of the city of Philadelphia," which was to be one of the initial points of the line. When the observatory was finished the instruments were mounted and observa- tions taken to fix the latitude of the place. That the reader may observe the painstaking accuracy with which these surveyors con ducted their work, there is subjoined a table of one night's observa- tions:
1763
Stars Magnitude.
Right Ascen-
Nearest point on
ye Sector.
Revolutions and
seconds on
Micrometer.
Difference.
Apparent
Stars
No. or. So.
h
o
Ľ
Dec.
21. x x Cygni
20
34|4
30-+
1
8
20
48+
0
10.01
14 49.3 N.
B Persei
0
5-+
78
-
S
Do.
14.5|7
4 15.5|N.
Capella
5
50
10
3712 3 43
5.55
47
18.5 N.
B Aurige
4
55-+
78
4115
25.24
57
9.2 N.
Castor
7
19|
35-
1412
1
46.27
33
21.8 N.
68
36
0
16.0
30 16.0 N. faint.
+
v Androm
1
15-
331/2 0
26.30
5 26.3|N.
G
5-
451/2 0
38
-7 -2
5
( 11
1412 2
( 8
Cha: Mason. Jere: Dixon.
Nearly one whole year was spent in ascertaining the middle point of the Henlopen line across the peninsula, and running the line northward to find the tangent point on the twelve mile periphery from the steeple of New Castle Court House, and on the 13th of November, 1764, they make the following entry in their notes,
5
sions.
zenith
distance.
(
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
" From data in minute of ye 27th of August, we computed how far the true tangent line would be distant from the Post (shown us to be the tangent point), and found it would not pass one inch to the west- ward or eastward. On measuring the angle of our last line, with the direction from New Castle, it was so near a right angle that on a mean from our lines, the above mentioned post is the true tangent point." Thus it was shown that with all the difficulties our native surveyors had to contend with, the English surveyors found, after a year's careful labor, that the work of their predecessors was correct.
On the 18th of June, 1765, Mason and Dixon make this entry in their notes, "We set seven stones, viz: one at the tangent point, four in the periphery of the circle round New Castle, one in the north line from tangent point, and one at the intersection of the north line (from ye Tangent Point) and the Parallel 15 Miles South of the Southermost Point of the City of Philadelphia, The Gent: Com- missioners of both provinces present." On the 27th of October, 1765, the following entry was made, "Capt. Shelby again went with us to the summit of the mountain (when the air was very clear), and shewed us the Northermost bend of the River Potowmack at the Conoloways; from which we judge the line will pass about two miles to the North of the said River. From hence we could see the Alleghany Mountains for many miles, and judge it by its appearance to be about 50 miles distance in the direction of the Line." On the 26th of September, 1766, the following important entry was made, " From any eminence in the Line, where 15 or 20 Miles of the Visto can be seen (of which there are many) the said line, or Visto, very apparently shews itself to form a parallel of Northern Latitude. The line in measured horizontal: the Hills and the Mountains with a 16 Feet Level. And beside the Mile Posts we have set Posts in the true Line (marked W on the west side) all along the Line opposite the Stationary Points, where the Sector and Transit Instruments stood. The said Posts stand in the middle of the Visto, which in general is abont 8 yards wide. The number of Posts in the West Line is 303."
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