The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-02-16

y
leet was IA court of record held once year
within a manor. The term leet comes from
the Latin word lis, law suit, ard leet
court is the court at which the suit of the
King was instituted, it being court hav-
ing jurisdiction over criminals or breakers
of the crown law. The business transacted
in it was very similar to that which is daily
transacted before the courts of quarter SEES
sions and police courts in our larger cities,
the design being to convict therein every
variety of offenders and criminals as well
as those Of the highest grade known to the
law as eavesdroppers and tattlers.
We have not found any thing in the
records of Maryland that leads us to be-
lieve that any other person was ever author
lied to hold courts of this kind in Cecil
county. Herman, though he was here
twenty years before this time and fourteen
years before the organization or erection of
the county, was not empowered to do SO by
his patent. Indeed it is not probable that
courts baron CT courts leet were ever held
in the province, though many of the early
proprietors of manors in other parts of the
province were invested with the authority
necessary for holding them.
Nothing more is said of Talbot in the
Journal of the council of Maryland during
the three following years, and it is proba-
BILE that he spent a part of that time in
;,;n lie Inns
connected with the settlement of his manor.
On the 4th of April, 1854, he presented
petition TO the council which was then sit
ting at st. Maries, in which he stated that
he had brought into the province since
1852 about so persons, which leaves $50
yet to be made good, or in lieu thereof SIS
sterling, and offers to his Lordship 1890
pounds of tobacco, being the value of f5S
sterling at one penny per pound of tobacco.
1t is plain from this statement in Talbot 5
petition that he was to pay "a pounds of
tobacco yearly per capita for the number
of cmigrants not yet imported into the
province. There is no mention of this
matter in the original patent, but it is
probable that there was an agreement or
understanding to this effect. He also states
in his petition that til bounds of his manor
of Susquehanua are Susceptible OF doubt
! full construction, and prays fora coiiilthla
ton of said patent, in which til BOUNDS
may be specified as follows: Beginning AT
| the furthest and uppermost source an"
! fountain head of North East river l.encI
forth to be called Shannon river. and al
the lines to be as they are in the first pat
eut. with mention of satisfaction received
for the rights wanting (which refers to the
payment of the tobacco for the persons moi
yet brought into the province, whereby
your petition may be encouraged to build,
improce and ihha6h that desert and frontier
corner Of your Lordship's procincP. This
petition was grant. d. and Talbot was in
vested with authority over Que of the larg,
est grants o! land ever made to an indi-
vidual in the province of Maryland.
Although Talbot characterizes his manor
as desert aud frontier corner of the pro-
vince, and although the patent is silent on
the subject, yet it appears that there were
a few settlers on it PRIOR to 1850, who had
obtained grants from the Lord Proprietor.
whose rights were duly respected by Tai
bot.
These original settlers located near the
mouth of the Susquehanna, probably dur
ipt ha 10 nf no trad
Palmer's Island. We have found traces of
two of these grants, the principal one be-
ing large tract of land called Clayfall.
near the mouth of Principle creek, then
called Back creek. Though Talbot's manor
is called Susquehanna in the patent, for
some reason the name was changed to New
Connought. For what reason or at what
time it was changed, we have been unable
70 learn, but for some time about this period
Susquehanna Manor and the country lying
east of it was called New Ireland, no doubt
because other large grants of land were
made to lrishmen there; and it is probable
that when this section of country was first
called New Ireland, the name of Susque-
hanna Manor was changed. Talbot, as
the reader will recollect, tried to change
the name of North East river, and prayed
that it might thereafter be called Shannon
river, but in this he was unsuccessful, and
the wildly rushing creek and quiet, placid
river now bear, and for more than a cen
fury past have borne the original name
North East that was given them, in all
probability. by the early settlers very soon
after the adventurous Smith had explored
years ago. Talbot like many of the other
early settlers in Maryland, had desire for
the acquisition of land that was hard to
satisfy; nor is this to be wondered at, for
the possession of land gave to the aristoc-
racy and was familiar with the prestige
and power of the nobility, hence it was
quite natural that he should wish to pos,
SeSs a large rather than small manor.
In the only deed from Talbot now on record
in Cecil county, dated the 10Th of June,
1857, the imaginary northeast line for the
northeastern boundary of his manor is de-
scribed as beginning at the furthest north
east fountain head of Shannon river. This
is the second, and probably the last, time
that that boundary was changed. By what
authority the change was made, we can
only conjecture, but it was probably made
while Talbot was one of the deputy govern
ors of the province, of which we shall speak
further on. BY changing the starting point
of the imaginary northwest line "from the
furthest and uppernsos' source and fountain
head Of northeast or Shannon rirer" to the
"furthest northeast fountain head of that
stream Talbot succeeded in adding many
thousands of acres to his manor and ex-
tended its limits about three fourths of
mile further up the OctoraIo, or to about
seven and one-quarter miles above the line
as now established between Maryland and
Pennsylvania. Susquehanna or New Con
nought Manor now included about one half
of the Fifth all of the Sixth and Seventh,
,,6 na,rlv all nf tho Ninth districts of