LANCASTER COUNTY. 241 



Robert Barber was likewise appointed sheriff, and 

 .\ndrew Galbraith, Coroner; and commissioners were 

 ordered to be proposed accordingly. 



" May 10th, 1729, the House of Representatives waited 

 e^i the Governor, and the Speaker presented a hill passed 

 into a laiv, which was accordingly by the Governor 

 passed into a law of this province. Be it enacted^ That 

 all and singular the lands within the province of Penn- 

 sylvania, lying to the northward of Octoraro creek, and 

 to the westward of a line of marked trees, running from 

 the north branch of said Octoraro creek, northeasterly to 

 the river Schuylkill, be erected into a county, and the 

 same is hereby erected into a county, named, and from 

 henceforth to be called Lancaster County ; and the said 

 Octoraro creek the line of marked trees. From the sub- 

 sequent organization of other counties the original boun- 

 daries of Lancaster have been altered. 



"At a council held at Philadelphia, Feb. IS, 1729-30. — 

 The Governor acquainted the board that whereas, by the 

 law for erecting Lancaster county, John Wright, Caleb 

 Pierce, Thomas Edwards and James JNlitchell, or any 

 three of them, are empoAvered to purchase for the use of 

 the said comity, a convenient piece of land to be ap- 

 proved of by the Governor, and thereon to build a court 

 house and prison, and that now the said John Wright, 

 Caleb Pierce and James jNIitchell, have by a certificate 

 under their hands, signified that they have agreed upon 

 a lot of land for the use aforesaid, lying on or near a 

 s^xlall run of water, between the plantations of Rudy 

 Mire,* Michael Shank and Jacob Imble, about ten miles 



*Rudy Mire had settled here about the year 1712. It is said, 

 his son Abraham was the eighth white child born in Lancaster 

 county. Abraham was a minister of the Mennonite denomi- 

 nation, and the first German Scrivener in Lancaster. Though 



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