The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1886-05-07

having only .hree years before succeeded
Joppa as the county seat--the latter dyinl
very suddenly-whether from decrepitude o
jealousy, is not positively known-in the fiji
ty-seventh year of her age. Our portion o
the county, Baltimore and Hartford wer
then one) no doubt already made indignan
AS well might be-by the frivolous foulery
which she had suffered at the hands of thu
provincial Assembly, by having had thu
county-seat two or three times shifted to a!
many different localities upon her soil, like
the unsubstantial "tents of the Arabs, "endur
cd this last browning insult but three years
when she peacefully seeded and under anoth
er name set up for herself Q773) as though pre-
paratory to supporting that far greater Dec,
| aration of Independence for which she SC
nobly commended during her infancy.
William Wilson, to whom so much of the
cargoes as is named in these two bills Of lad,
| ing, was consigned, was the father of DR.
Joshua Wilson, and nephew of Henry Will
his activity here during the Revolutionary
war John Stump, of Stafford married
Henry Wilson's daughter, Henry w. Will
sonl Archer, ESQ.,, his great-grandson, is
named for him. William Wilson, named in
the bill of lading, was merchant, running
several stores in various parts of the county,
(as l find from his account books,) from July
l, 1771, until the beginning of the war for In
dependence, which seems to have suspended
his mercantile operations. His partner was
the Thomas Philpot named in the bill of
ladng, who appears to have made frequent
voyages to London in connection with the
business of the firm. Thomas Philpot, the
present Register of Wills of Baltimore coun-
ty, is probably descendant of his. Their
stock in company" was fS96 sterling
about $4,33G-quite a large sum in those
days. VIM. Wilson inherited from his faith
er, of the same name, (who came here from
Anne Arundel county in the beginning of
the last century, Gibson's Park, situated on
Winter Run, containing 800 acres, where he
lived, and most of which is still in possession
Of his descendants.
AN OLD LAND WARRANT.
have also found among DR.. Wilson's
papers q Land Warrant of the revolutionary
period, which, if | may judge by myself and
by others to whom bave shown it, will be
quite new although itself so old), to the ma.
jority of readers. Among Others handed it
to several of the leading lawyers of Bel Air,
hoping to get from them some information
on the subject o. land warrants in general, as
a basis for comments which might be of in
terest to the public. But although each one
scanned the dilapidated document closely and
with evident interest, none of them could
give me the least glimmer of light upon the
subject, for all their extensive libraries bound
in sheep" All which only shows how utter
ly extinct the Old land.system is, and how
seldom even the most learned and eminent
legal gentlemen have any usein thesemodern
days for such long buried fossils. The reader
hon nrNI ,,,sn ,s1
land warrant for himself 1t runs as follows:
maryland, IS.
Lay out for William Wilson, of Hartford
county twenty-five acres of land, he having paid
the sum of one pound Ave shillings sterling for
the same.
lib. Calvert,
q. Stewart
AS appears sc, in any part of this Province
not formerly laid out for nor cultivated by any
person, nor lands leased or reserved for his Lord
ships use; and return your Certificate of Survey
thereof with the name of the Place, in what
into his Lordships Land Office by the I3dl day of
[Julyl next, thence to be transmitted to the Ex-
amner General for due examination in order for
Patent to issue thereon in case the same be sued
out within two years from the date hereof. And
for SO doing this shall be your warrant Given
under " ID his Lordship's Lesser Seal at Arms this
10htS LordShtpS SurCeyor Of this Frouince.
The warrant is endorsed as follows
Hartford county, SIS. Received this warrant
the seventh day of January, 1777, and the same
day located to join on the following lands lyingin
BEGINNING Aquila's inheritance, Halls Rich
w GEO. GoULD's PREsBURY.
ID. S, II. c., deputy Surveyor of Hartford Co..
B. Calvert, signed above, was probably the
royal Governor under the Lord Proprietary.
What puzzles me most about this old
paper Is, why, in the name of common
n MI lhprty tim upnn State of Maru.
land, nearly two years after the great strug.
gle with the mother-country had begun, and
so much precious blood had been shed,
should go on using these blanks, in which
the Lord roprietary-long before driven
from the country and utterly abhorred-is
referred to in terms of honor and reverence,
as though he still ruled her as tributary
'Province." 1t is not pleasant fact to con.
template, either as patriot or us Christian,
that the expression, "his Lordship," is in
in the body of the warrant, exactly
the same number of times that the Almighty's
awful name is so lightly invoked in the bill
of lading as though the two documents,
taken jointly, were specially intended to in
dictate that the Lord of day and the eternal
God were to be equally honored by those
who were, at the same time the subjects of
the one and the creatures of the Other. And
10 cup Jne Cll.ndA OF course apparently so
with patriotism, this land-war-
rant winds up with "Given under his Lord
ships Seal at Arms" The whole thing
would indicate that our good State was sail
ing under false colors, so to speak, did we
not know that she was doing nothing of the
sort Can it be possible that it was intended
as grim sarcasm upon the ex-Proprietary's
utter importance? The significant fact that
there.is no sign or trace whatever that a
"seal" had ever been attached to the paper,
would go to confirm this view. In other
words, it may have been intended to display
the same spirit which Patrick Henry subse,
quently elucidated with such characteristic
force, after peace was established and the
banished tories began to return to their for
mer homes, when he said, by way of protest
against the vengeful threats of angry patriots:
"Shall we who humbled the British lion be
afraid of his whelps ?"
| hope to CLEAN from DR.. Wilson's papers
other interesting information concerning the
early history of the county.
G. w. ARCHER.
Eosmorton, May 29tb, 1886.
Narn,. Eornaf Anyfh;nn