The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-05-11
Historical Researches that Quilp Made
rs Bohemian.
CHAPTER XXIII.
WEIGH TRACT.


swAMP-PENN's REASON FOR MAKING
THE GRANT TO THE wELCH-oRGANIZA-
TIoN OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH ON IRON
LILLIAN OFFICER OF CRoMwELL's ARMY
ORGANIZATION OF THE PENCADER PRES
BYTERIAN CHURCH-A DEVOTED PASTOR
SAMUEL DAVIES.
Although but part of WEIGH Tract is in
Cecil county, it seems proper to give a short
sketch of it's early history, because of its
close proximity to our county, and intimate
connection with and influence upon it.
The reader of these sketches will recol-
lect that George Talbot, in order to extend
Lord Baltimore's authority as FAR eastward
as possible, had, probably as early as 1888,
erected and garrisoned a fort, which, the
writer has learned from information re-
ceivcd since the sketch of his life was writ
ten, WAS about five miles from New Castle.
on the west side of Christiana creek. Tie
garrison of this fort, who were Irshmen
and Catholics, were upon good terms with
the few inhabitants that had at that early
day settled il the vc unity Of Christana
bridge and Ogletown. They were placed
there by Talbot, in order to held the coun-
try for his cousin Lord Baltimore. They
are said to have received their provisions
from the country around Bohemia ferry,
which the reader will recollect was the resi-
dence Of Augustine Herman, the founder
of the county, who had settled upon Bohe-
1 III @
press master, an officer whose duty it was
to procure provisions for the use of those
in the military service of the colony. Tai
bot continued to hold this fort until the
murder of the unfortunate Rousby, about
which time the garrison (it is 50 stated by
| one John GarretSon, who was examined
under oath, and whose testimony is printed
in Pcnn's Breviat) got drunk and laid out
in the cold, from the effect of which they
were frost bitten, and some of them lost
their limbs and some of them their lives.
The reader must not forget that at this
time the Iermans claimed Augustine S
Manor, which extended from Bohemia
Manor to the Delaware, and entirely sew
cred in twain PENIS plantations, as his ter
ritory ON the Delaware was then called.
Talbot had disappeared some fifteen
years before this time 1701), and Penn
was, no doubt, quite as anxious to inter
pose barrier on the east of New Ireland,
by granting the WEIGH their tract, as he
was to cut Susquehanna Manor in two by
his grant of Nottingham to the Friends,
which he did about three months after
wards.
| The three agents who, for themselves
and the company for which they acted,
| obtained the grant of tho WEIGH Tract
| from William Penn were, at that time,
residents of Radnor township. then in
| Chester county, Pa, where, for a short
time, most of the original WEIGH settlers
on the WEIGH Tract lived. Tic agreement
between Penn and the agents of the WEIGH
stated that they we're to have "thirty thou
sand acres, if there be so much vacant in
the place hereafter expressed. That is to
say, behind the town of New Castle, west
ward, extending northwald and southwark.
| Beginning to the westward, seven miles
| from the said town of New Castle, and ex-
tending upward and downward, as there
shall be found room by regular straight
lines, is near as may be"
| The purchasers were to pay Gle los. for
every hundred acres, and were to pay for
| 1000 acres at the expiration of the two
years next after the purchase, and for the
| remainder of the tract at the end Of the
three following years, and if they failed to
make the payments at the time specified
they were to pay one English pound for
| every one hundred acres, as 4 yearly rent
till such time as the other payments were
made. They were also to pay one English
silver shilling for every hundred acres as Il
yearly tent forever.
Owing TO the indefinite statement OF the
boundaries of the tract, it is impossible at
| this time to locate them with any degree
of accuracy, but from the best informa.
ton we have been able to obtain the north
east corner of the tract was few hundred
| yards northeast of the new railroad depot
at Newark, Del, from which the northern
line ran west to the northwest corner, which
was about one quarter or one third of a
mile west of the due north line between
Maryland and Delaware, from which the
west line ran south, probably nearly paral-
| lei with the tangent liae which divides the
two States, until it reached the southwest
corner of the tract, which was a short dis
lance south of the Chesapeake and Della
| ware Canal.
| The northwest conner of the tract is men,
| toned in the report OF commission which
| marked and bounded the lands of Samuel
| Wilson, who was the proprietor of the
celebrated place, called Wild Cat Swamp,
in 1884, but owing to the division of the
| lands then marked and bounded, and the
length of time since it was done, it is not
easy to ascertain the location of the said
corner at this time.
Wild Cat Swamp was known in modern
times by the name of Scat Swamp" u
is located a short distance west of where
the road from Elkton to Newark crosses
Persimmon run. Some of the residents Of
tation in former times, and at least two
murders were committed on or near it.
| Owing to the bad reputation of the place,
| it was hard to locate, and in time the name
was applied to a large section of country
extending some miles in every direction
from the original Wild Cat Swamp. This
section of country now contains some Of
the best farms and the most industrious,
enterprising and moral people in the county.
| Probably one-eight, possibly one fourth,
of the original Welch Tract is now in Cecil
county, that much of it being west of the
boundary liue located by Mason and Dixon
more than halfa century after it was granted
by Penn to the WEIGH. The object of Penn
in granting this tract to the WEIGH was the
same he had in view when he granted Not
tingham to the Friends, viz, to extend his
domain as near the navigable water of the