When Penn was old and broken by his troubles, and not long before the loss of his mind, he was ready to seize upon those stricter or more literal interpretations of the two charters which they were not understood to mean in 1681. Hannah Penn, the wife married at the end of 1695, had no knowledge to gainsay these interpretations. It is only fair to John, Thomas, and Richard Penn, who drove the ultimate bargain with the fifth Lord Baltimore, to say in this connection that they were not grown up in time to talk business with their father or even their elder brother, and came to their estate with their information derived from their mother, and in dependence upon her legal advisers.

Although the Maryland practice was to issue warrants at large, that is not specifying the locality, but allowing the surveyor to survey any land in that province at the risk of his action being void by reason of the land belonging to another purchaser; a practice likely to result in overstepping the province's boundaries: yet the preference for land convenient to the settlements kept the Maryland surveyors well south of Octorara Creek for a long time. About the beginning of 1713, surveying upon lands previously surveyed by Pennsylvanians began. Penn's Commissioners of Property, Carpenter, Hill, Norris, and Logan wrote to Charles Carroll, Lord Baltimore's agent, asserting their own observance of what they understood to have always been deemed by the Marylanders their northern boundary, meaning the Octorara line, and suggesting that all further proceedings be deferred until the boundary could be fixed by authority of the Crown following the surrender of the government of the two provinces. There had been a report that Lord Baltimore, as well as Penn, was about to make a surrender. The officers or citizens of Chester County seized the Sheriff of Cecil when executing his office upon land claimed by Pennsylvania, perhaps summoning or arresting settlers.

Carroll sent a polite reply, promising no further violence until the boundary was settled, which he suggested could be by ascertaining the "fortieth degree" by instruments, without appealing to the Crown, the degree having been already found to be much further north than any of the surveys.

It may have been only for fixing the boundary west of the eastern line decreed in 1685 that the third Lord Baltimore had been having these later observations taken. In March, 1713-4, another observation was taken, and the latitude of a place on the Upper Branch of the Elk River was calculated to be 39° 29′ 17′′. He died about a year after this.

The fourth Lord Baltimore had, long before, become a Protestant, but, dying in April, 1715, a few weeks after succeeding to the Irish barony and the American proprietorship, did not recover the government of Maryland. He had married a daughter of Sir Edward Henry Lee, first Earl of Lichfield, but had been divorced from her after the birth of a number of children, among whom was Charles, who became fifth Lord Baltimore. Lichfield's wife, Charles's grandmother, was an illegitimate child of King Charles II, but such bastard relationship to the Stuarts exerted no influence when Charles Calvert came to his inheritance. He succeeded when about sixteen years old. Having, however, been brought up a Protestant, he was not under the cloud which had hung over his ancestors. In about a month, the government of Maryland was restored to him.

He did not grow up a man of great ability or strong character, although recognized as having some attainments in the arts and sciences. Clayton Colman Hall, in The Lords Baltimore and the Maryland Palatinate, quotes various opinions concerning him, including Lord Hervey's: "thinks he understands every

In 1717, Maryland surveyors went as far north as near the head of the Pequea Creek: in opposition, the Pennsylvania Commissioners of Property, on 11 mo. 2, not only awarded to a partisan some of the ground surveyed, but also offered a reward of 10 l. to any person arresting such a surveyor, and delivering him to the Sheriff or proper officer. If at this time the Maryland surveyors retreated before this peril of being kidnapped, the officials of Cecil County afterwards did not hesitate to make at least a show of force to vindicate their jurisdiction, and the threatening possibilities west of the Susquehanna, remote from centres of authority, and where Indians might resent encroachments, caused in 1721 or 1722, an agreement between the acting Governors of the two colonies that no surveys for any private person should be made in that region.

Keith's steps in opposition to the putting of settlements on the western banks of the Susquehanna, will be narrated in the chapter on Confusion at the Death of William Penn. This Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania accepted the views of the Penn agents and friends in the Council, that, pending a final decision by competent authority of the boundary question, the Octorara line must be recognized.

By agreement dated Feb. 17, 1723-4, between Lord Baltimore of the one part, and William Penn's widow and executrix and two of the mortgagees of Pennsylvania &ct. of the other part, it was provided that for eighteen months no persons on either side should be disturbed in their possessions, nor any lands surveyed, taken up, or granted in either province near the boundaries claimed by either side. The hope was expressed in the agreement that within the period the boundaries would be determined and settled. This hope, however,

was not realized, and Marylanders and Pennsylvanians entered upon the disputed region: in fact the former, in ignorance of where the 40th parallel was, often went beyond what Baltimore claimed.

In 1731, Thomas Cresap and others with Maryland warrants took possession of Conejohela, settling at a spot in fact north of the 40th parallel, on the western bank of the Susquehanna, driving away some Indians, and burning their cabins. Depredations upon the whites of Pennsylvania allegiance, followed by resistance to arrest, brought about a border war which involved some loss of life, although during the years in which said struggle was somewhat spasmodically kept up, proceedings to settle the question, or to gain some legal advantage, were being taken by more conspicuous persons.

On July 1, 1731, Lord Baltimore petitioned the King to order the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania to join with said Lord in ascertaining the boundaries. Before this petition was disposed of, frequent interviews took place between the principals on both sides, the bill and answer subsequently filed in Chancery contradicting each other as to who made the overtures. We cannot see why Baltimore sought or suggested the compromise made, or, for that matter, why he agreed to it, even supposing that he meant the interpretation in minor details for which he afterwards contended. With the western half of the Delaware peninsula already his, it was not a case of "give and take" to accept less than he claimed to the north, or even as little, in exchange for his relinquishing claim to the old City of Philadelphia and most of its Northern Liberties, the present Delaware County, and nearly, if not all, the present state of Delaware. Even if that relinquished claim was then worthless, so that said land is not to be taken into account, he was giving away, north of the present boundary of Maryland, over 2,000,000 acres which the

charter of 1632 plainly gave him, and the order of 1685 as clearly adjudged to him; acres, moreover, adjoining improved property. We can only suppose that he was not sober, or had otherwise lost his head, or had been unduly frightened by the matter of the Octorara line. With unaccountable weakness, from the consequences of which the English Court of Chancery did not let him squirm out, he, as party of the 1st part, made an agreement dated May 10, 1732, with John, Thomas, and Richard Penn, of the 2nd part, whereby it was covenanted that the circle called for by King Charles II's charter should be drawn at twelve miles distance from New Castle, that from the middle point of an east and west line to be run from the point of Cape Henlopen, lying south of Cape Cornelius on the ocean, to the western side of the Peninsula, there should be run a straight line northwardly as a boundary until it touched the western part of the periphery of the circle around New Castle, and from the point of contact a further boundary-line should be run due north to the latitude of fifteen English miles due south of the southernmost point of the City of Philadelphia, that a line due west should then be run across the Susquehanna to the western extent of Pennsylvania, or as far as requisite, viz: twenty-five English miles west of the River, so that it could be continued when those parts were better settled, that if the line running due north from the point of contact with the circle should cut off part of the circle, such part should still be in New Castle County, that seven commissioners on each side, three being a quorum, should lay out and mark the lines between October 1, 1732, and December 25, 1733, and that the party whose commissioners did not attend after any adjournment should forfeit £5000 to the party whose commissioners attended. It is rather amusing that so strongly had the Penn side been imbued with faith in the Octorara line, that Ferdinand John Paris,