VOL. 12, NO. 9 — SEPTEMBER 2020 II granted sole right of titling lands to the Proprietors FOR THE RECORDS (William Penn and his heirs). William Penn installed a Board Researching early Pennsylvania of Property with three to five members assigned to handle the majority of property transactions in his absence. When Penn New Warrants died in 1718, his will transferred proprietorship to his children by his second wife. His estate remained open until 1732, “Old Rights: Researching Early Pennsylvania,” published in when proprietorship transferred to his heirs. In 1732, Penn’s the July 2020 issue of PastPorts dealt with the complex his‐ heirs disbanded the board of property and handed over direc‐ tory of land ownership and development that researchers of‐ tion to Thomas Penn, who operated out of his home in Phila‐ ten face. This month’s article continues to explore this subject delphia. Thomas appointed a proprietary secretary, a surveyor in the period up to 1776. general, and a receiver general. In 1741, Thomas returned to England and signed over responsibility for warrants and The beginning of New Warrants patents to the Governor, who continued to use the three posi‐ tions created by Penn. The proprietary secretary moved his No official land office existed in early Pennsylvania. Charles office into a room in Provincial Hall. This was as close to an Genealogical Map of the Counties show the land treaty signed by the proprietors in 1732, 1736, 1737, 1749, 1754, and 1768. The map can be downloaded as a PDF from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’ <https://bit.ly/32GQWHK>. SEPTEMBER 2020 | PAGE 2 Survey completed in 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon establishing the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland. (See A Plan of the West Line or Parallel of Latitude, Which is the Boundary between the Provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania... In the bibliography). official “land office” as existed under the proprietors. Pennsylvania Land Records: A History and Guide for Re‐ search (see bibliography). William Penn used a number of schemes to sell and lease property¹. First Purchasers, Late Purchasers, Under Pur‐ Beginning in 1733, the new proprietors began issuing the first chasers, Original Purchasers, etc. – it was all very complex. new warrants for land in over 15 years. These warrants were With no land office to handle the documentation process, the the first issued without ties to the “old rights.” New warrants land titles grew out of control. 7 July 1759, the Pennsylvania created beginning in 1733 were issued via an Application to assembly presented to the governor “An Act for Recording all Warrant, available in digital format on FamilySearch as “Ap‐ Warrants and Surveys, and for rendering the Real Estate and plications for Warrant, 1734–1865.” These applications Property within this Province more Secure.” This Act in‐ would result in a Warrant to Survey, Survey, Return to Sur‐ cluded a provision put forth by the governor that established vey, and a Patent, which are digitized at FamilySearch as an “Office for Recording Warrants and Surveys.” This office “Original Surveys, 1682–1920” and “Patent Books, 1676– removed the responsibility for land title from the Proprietors. 1960”². John Hughes was assigned to the Warrants and Survey’s Office, where he set to inventory and copy the land records. Land treaties The proprietors objected to the act and sought a hearing with The new proprietors signed their first land treaty in 1732, fol‐ the King. George II vetoed the act in September 1760 and re‐ lowed by others in 1736, 1737, 1749, 1754, and 1768. Con‐ stored land title to the proprietors. In 1763, John Penn, son of sult the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Proprietor Richard Penn, became Governor, and any notion Genealogical Map of the Counties (1985) <https://bit.ly/ of a land office was laid to rest. In 1763, the Proprietors re- 32GQWHK> to see the outline of these treaties. This will instituted a Board of Property and continued to use three ap‐ give you an idea of when warrants “could” be applied for pointed assistants: the proprietary secretary, surveyor general, within a particular region. Presumptive settlers (i.e, squatters) and receiver general. and settlers with licenses did not immediately warrant their lands just because their lands were included in a treaty. In Despite the short time frame of the Warrants and Survey’s many cases, the original settlers never applied for warrants, Office, Hughes was able to inventory and copy all of the but their children, grandchildren, and settlers to whom they records and compile them into two periods: the Old Rights sold their property did. Delaying patents indefinitely had ad‐ (1608–1732) and the New Warrants (1733–1776)². Hughes’ vantages. By doing so, one could avoid paying the full charge inventory appears in Appendix A of Donna Munger’s book, of the value of the land or the quitrents for its ownership. SEPTEMBER 2020 | PAGE 3 The proprietors set aside from their treaties ten percent of all John Digges, a Roman Catholic, a 10,000-acre warrant of his the lands they obtained for their own ownership. The inten‐ “choice” to be surveyed out of the wilderness. By 1735, a tion of these proprietary manors was to lease them for long- 6822-acre tract named Digges’ Choice was surveyed in what term income. The reality was that they were rarely free of pre‐ are today York and Adams counties. To populate this tract, sumptive settlers, who had no intention of leasing land they Digges brought with him many Maryland Catholics who pur‐ had already improved. The heirs expanded on their father’s chased lands directly from him. Digges attempted to draw in plans by creating the proprietary towns of York, Reading, Scotch-Irish settlers to his tract from Pennsylvania, but not Carlisle, Easton, Bedford, and Sunbury. Each town was laid wishing to be indebted to Digges, most settled outside of its out within a manor, which the proprietors warranted in their borders. Why the original survey was for 6822 acres is un‐ own names. Records for proprietary towns are available digi‐ known but appears to be a surveyor’s error, because Digges tally on FamilySearch as “Proprietary Towns, 1751–1829”³. attempted to resurvey his land in 1745. Pennsylvania deemed the second survey illegal in 1752 and did not honor Digges’s The Mason-Dixon Survey full claim⁵. The border between Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania In 1730, Governor Keith authorized Samuel Blunston, to is‐ created significant controversy for the proprietors. Conflict‐ sue “licenses” for warrant to Pennsylvanians willing to cross ing charters between Maryland and Pennsylvania placed their the Susquehanna into modern day York, Adams, and Cumber‐ border somewhere at or between 39 and 40 degrees north lat‐ land Counties⁶. In March, Calvert issued Thomas Cresap a itude, with the southeastern border beginning along a 12 mile warrant to acreage and a ferry in the Conestoga Valley on the half circle outside New Castle. The Pennsylvania charter was west side of the Susquehanna (near Wrightsville). Calvert ap‐ not clear as to where the center point of this circle was, and pointed Cresap as the local land surveyor and justice of the these conflicting charters could locate Philadelphia in Mary‐ peace for Baltimore Co. Cresap built a small block fort at his land and Baltimore in Pennsylvania. The western border of ferry crossing and began the work of luring Marylanders into Pennsylvania was to mirror the eastern border, and depending what is today York Co. Cresap and his gang of Marylanders on the location of the New Castle circle, portions of present attacked the natives and forcibly evicted Pennsylvanians who day Pennsylvania were within the boundaries of Virginia’s would not obtain Maryland warrants. Blunston, unable to 1612 charter. To make matters more complex, the French also grant warrants without a signed treaty with the natives, en‐ laid claim to much of the territory west of the Allegheny couraged Marylanders to obtain licenses for their properties. Mountains, lands that were also claimed by Maryland, Vir‐ Blunston issued 282 licenses during this period without war‐ ginia, and Pennsylvania. rants, mostly in Cumberland County. In the years following William Penn’s death and before his On 11 Oct. 1736, the proprietors purchased from the heirs assumed proprietorship, available country land within Onondaga, Seneca, Tuscarora, and Cayuga Indians all lands the boundaries of Pennsylvania treaties began to dry up. In on the east and west bank of the Susquehanna. Thomas Penn, 1718, Land Agent James Logan issued licenses to Scotch- acting as local proprietor, issued land warrants for 13,000 Irish immigrants to settle the east bank of the Susquehanna to acres between York and Wrightsville. Six weeks later, the create a barrier against Indians and Marylanders. Few if any Lancaster Sheriff acting on his own accord with a posse of 24 of these settlers ever filed a warrant. In 1722, Gov. William men went to apprehend Cresap. They set fire to Cresap’s Keith ordered—without treaty—the surveying of over 22,000 home (Cresap was inside with his wife and children) and cap‐ acres of manor land west of the Susquehanna in what is today tured him and several compatriots as they fled for the river. York Co. By the late 1720s, German settlers began to claim this land on the Manor of Spingettsbury⁴. In October 1736, In August 1737, George II ordered the ceasing of any “tu‐ Thomas Penn signed licenses of occupancy to these settlers. mults, riots, or other disorders” along the borders, as well as the stoppage of any issuance of license, warrant, and the pre‐ In 1727, Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, granted to sumptive settlement of lands in-question between the two SEPTEMBER 2020 | PAGE 4 provinces and within the three lower counties⁷.