The Circular Boundary Line Between Delaware County and the State of Delaware

That Lord Baltimore, long before the royal grant to Penn, during the Dutch ascendency on the Delaware, had made demand upon the Hollanders for all the land lying to the south of the fortieth degree north latitude is fully attested by the published records, but inasmuch as his representatives never, so far as we have knowledge, personally came to any locality in Pennsylvania, the story of that disputed territorial authority at that time is properly the subject-matter of the history of the State of Delaware, and does not come within the scope of this work.

The controversy respecting the proper adjustment of the boundary line between the territories of Lord Baltimore and William Penn was a long and bitter struggle, which, descending from father to son, covered nearly a century in tedious and expensive litigation before it was finally set at rest by the decree of Lord Chancellor Hardwick and the establishment of the noted Mason and Dixon line in conformity therewith. While the southern boundary of Delaware County presents a circular course extending the State of Delaware several miles at its northern limit beyond the straight line which elsewhere forms the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, that circle constitutes historically no part of the Mason and Dixon survey, which, during the Missouri Compromise debates in 1820, was made so familiar to the nation by John Randolph, who, in his remarks, constantly referred to it as the imaginary geographical line which marked the division between the free and slave States. Nearly four years previous to the grant of the territory to Penn, for the convenience of the then settlers on the Delaware, an amicable adjustment of the line dividing New Castle and Upland (afterward Chester County) was made. At a court held at Upland, Nov. 12, 1678, this proceeding is recorded as follows:¹

"The Limits and Division between this and New Castle county, were this day agreed upon and settled By this Court and Mr. John Moll president of New Castle Court To be as followeth, vizt.
"This County of Upland to begin from ye north syde of oele fransens Creeke, otherwise Called Steenkill Lying in the boght above ye verdrietige hoeck, and from the said Creek over to ye singletree point on the East syde of the River."

This division, Edward Armstrong, in his valuable note to the "Record of Upland Court," has made intelligible to the modern reader. The creek, he tells us, at the time when the boundary line between the two counties was adjusted, known as Oele Francens, was at a late date called Streen or Stoney Creek, and is now recognized as Quarryville Creek, crossing the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad three and three-quarter miles below the mouth of Naaman's Creek, in Brandywine Hundred, New Castle Co., Del. "Verdrietige hoeck," or corner of land, was also called Trinity Hook, lying between Shellpot (a corruption of "Skelldpadde," the Swedish for "turtle") and Stoney Creeks. "Verdrietige" was a term derived from the Dutch "verdrietigh," signifying "grievous" or "tedious," owing to the character of the navigation in approaching that point, while "Singletree Point" is now "Old Man's Point," on the New Jersey shore, one mile below the mouth of "Old Man Creek."

The charter or patent of Charles II. to William Penn, bearing date the 4th day of March, 1681, as also in the proclamation of the king, April 2d of the same year, in defining the territorial boundaries of Penn's provinces, mentions the circular line as "on the South by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from New Castle northwards and westwards into the beginning of the fortieth degree of northern latitude and then by a straight line westwards to the limits of longitude above mentioned."

After Penn had acquired jurisdiction of the territory by virtue of the royal grant, he dispatched his cousin, Capt. William Markham, as his Deputy Governor, to represent him in the province. The latter, in a letter to Penn, dated New York, June 25, 1681, says, "This is to acquaint thee that about ten daies since here arrived Francis Richardson with thy Deputy," and on the 3d day of August, 1681, Markham was in Upland, as stated in the preceding chapter.

In the latter part of August, 1681, Capt. William Markham, Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania, who had been intrusted by the king with a letter to Charles, Lord Baltimore, requesting the latter to "appoint with all convenient speed some person or persons who may in connection with the agent or agents of ye said William Penn make a true division & separation of ye said Province of Maryland and Pennsil-