130 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



"May it please the Governor: 



"Being informed by the Governor's letter to us, that the execution of. 

 a warrant directed to Charles Jones, Constable of Hempfield, for appre- 

 hending two sons of John Lowe, of this county, pretending themselves 

 inhabitants of Maryland, hath been represented to Lord Baltimore as a 

 violent and riotous assault committed against his Lordship's Peace, good 

 Kule and Government. 



"We have therefore, made strict inquiry into the manner of the exe- 

 cution thereof, which, together with the cause of issuing the said war- 

 rant, and all other things relating thereunto, are herewith faithfully 

 transmitted. 



"In the year 1729, when the Governor was pleased to issue an Order 

 to divide this part of the Province from Ches-ter County, and for erecting 

 the same into a distinct County, and appointed Magistrates and Officers, 

 for the Conservation of the Peace, the more easy administration of Jus- 

 tice and better securing the sober and quiet inhabitants in those remote 

 parts of the Province, from the thefts and abuses committed by idle and 

 dissolute persons who resorted hither to keep out of the hands of Justice, 

 the Southern boundaries of the said County were by the said Order to 

 be, Octoraro Creek and the Province of Maryland, and including the in- 

 habitants, to lie open to the Westward. But as the line between the 

 two Provinces was not known, no authority was claimed over those 

 few families settled to the Northward of Octoraro, by or under pretence 

 of Maryland Eights, but they remained (by us) undisturbed, though 

 many inhabitants of Pennsylvania lived some miles to the Southward 

 of them. 



"At that time there were no English inhabitants on the West side of 

 Sasquehannah River in these parts, for about two years before Edward 

 Parnel and several other families who were settled on the West side of 

 the River, near the same, at a place called (by the Indians) Coneohela, 

 (who for several years had paid uninterrupted acknowledgment to this 

 Province) were at the request of the Conestogoe Indians, removed by 

 the Governor's Order from the said place ; the Indians insisting on the 

 same to lie vacant for their convenience, as their right by treaties with 

 this Government formerly made. But about two years since, Thomas 

 Cressop and some other people of loose morals and turbulent spirits, 

 came and disturbed the Indians, our friends and allies, who were peace- 

 ably settled on those lands from whence the said Parnel and others had 

 been removed, burnt their cabbins and destroyed their goods, and with 

 much threatening and ill usage drove them away, and by pretending to 

 be under Maryland Government. (As they were got far from their laws 

 sought to evade ours.) But as that land had been formerly settled by 

 the good people of this Province, and none till Cressop and his company 



