OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 143 



one Higginbotliam, proceeded forcibly to expel the Germans. Again 

 the Council ordered out the Sheriff of Lancaster, and the power of his 

 county, with directions to dispose detachments in proper positions to 

 protect the people ; and they despatched Messrs. Lawrence and Ashton, 

 members of the Board, to support him in the execution of their orders. 

 When the Sheriff entered the field the invaders retired, but returned as 

 soon as his force was withdrawn. Captures were made on both sides; 

 the German settlers were harassed perpetually ; in many instances driven 

 from their farms, and in others deterred from every attempt to plant or 

 improve. 



"In May, 1737, the Council sent Samuel Preston and John Kiusey on 

 an embassy to Governor Ogle, to treat on some measure which might 

 preserve the quiet of the border, until the pleasure of the King should 

 be known, to whom both parties had appealed. But Governor Ogle re- 

 quiring some concessions incompatible with the rights of the proprie- 

 taries of Pennsylvania, the deputies returned without having made any 

 agreement. In the succeeding October a party of Marylanders, to the 

 number of sixteen, under the direction of one Eichard Lowder, broke 

 into the jail at Lancaster, and released the rioters who had been appre- 

 hended by the Sheriff, among whom was a brother of their leader. For- 

 tunately, when indignation was prompting the inhabitants on both sides 

 of the line to further breaches of the peace, an order of the King in 

 Council, on the subject of the boundary, induced both parties to refrain 

 from further violence, to drop all prosecutions, and to discharge their 

 respective prisoners on bail. 



" This order was made on the report of the committee on plantations, 

 of the eighteenth of August, 1737, and required the Governors of the 

 respective Provinces effectually to check the disturbances on the borders, 

 and to refrain from granting lands in dispute, even in the territories, 

 until the king's pleasure should be further known.*' 



George Thomas, Esqr., a planter of Antigua, was appointed Governor 

 of Pennsylvania and territories in 1737, but his assumption of office was 

 delayed by the remonstrance of Lord Baltimore against the right of the 

 Proprietaries to the lower counties. He met the Assembly of the 

 province on the sixth of August, 1738. 



The Eoyal order respecting the disturbances on the border, above re- 

 ferred to, and the action taken on it by the Provincial Council on August 

 29th, will be perused with interest ■} 



At the Court at Kensington the 25th day of May, 1738. 



PRESEXT: 



The King's most Excellent Majesty. 

 Arch Bishop of Canterbury, Earl of Selkirk, 



1 Col. Reo. IV.— p. 298, etc. 



