54 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



letter void bis patent ; and by tliat lie would stand. This was tlie sub- 

 stance of what he said from first to last during the whole conference." ^ 



" This question of boundary was vexatious and of long continuance, 

 and was not treated by Lord Baltimore with that delicacy and forbear- 

 ance which characterized William Penn. For Baltimore would not 

 dela}'' the exercise of the rights which he claimed, until inquiry should 

 be made into their legality ; but, by proclamation, otYered lands in the 

 territories lor sale, at half the price demanded for those unquestionably 

 within his own patent ; - and in the folloAviug year, he used force to dis- 

 possess several persons^ who refused to acknowledge his title, and threat- 

 ened others who would not pay him quit-rent.'' The claims of Baltimore 

 were not without color. Maryland Avas granted to Cecilius Calvert, Lord 

 Baltimore, by patent, dated June 20th, 1632, and was now held by his 

 son Charles. The charter, in the description of the northern boundaries, 

 had the folloAving clause: 'unto that part of Delaware bay on the north, 

 Avhich lie binder (he fortieth degree of northern latitude;' but it had also a 

 clause restricting the grantee to the occupation of such lands as had not 

 been previously settled by European nations. Penn's charter included 

 the country from the ' beginning of the fortieth degree of north latitude,' 

 and, of course, from the end of the thirty-ninth degree. The words 

 'under the fortieth degree,' gave to Baltimore, as he supposed, a right 

 to the lands up to the beginning of the forty-first degree. To this con- 

 struction Penn opposed the restricting clause in the Maryland charter, 

 and averred that the territories had been settled by Europeans in 

 1627, five years before the date of that grant. lie also endeavored to 

 restrain the degree in Baltimore's grant to sixty miles, alleging that to, 

 be the mode of computation at the time it was givcn.'^ 



"The proprietary had a deep interest in this contest. Sliould Balti- 

 more prevail, he would be deprived of one degree by five, equal to 

 tAventy-four thousand one hundred and sixteen square miles. But thLs 

 possible curtailment of his province did not affect him so deeply as the 

 prospective loss of j^orts and commercial adA'antages upon the Chesapeake, 

 Avhich he supposed to be included in his charter.'^ During his life, how- 

 ever, no effectual means Avere adopted for terminating the dispute. In 

 1732, his heirs and Lord Baltimore entered into an agreement, by Avhich 

 nearly one-half of the DelaAvare peninsula, north and Avest of Cape Hen- 

 lopen, Avas assigned to the former, and the southern boundary of the 

 province Avas fixed on that parallel of latitude Avhicli is fifteen miles south 

 of the most southern parts of the city of Philadelphia. But the perfor- 

 mance of this agreement Avas procrastinated by Baltimore, under various 



1 Gordon. 



-Bait. Prod. I.lth May lOM-L IVnifs f.etter to Com. of Plinitation. I4tli June 1683. 



3 Proud. 



