The Penn's Grove record., 1905-03-24
The Boundary Issue Settled

The compact agreed to by the Della
a and New Jersey Legislatures as a
settlement to the fishing rights on the
Delaware river, is a most sensible end
ing to a disputes Of thirty-two years
standing, founded upon old land grants
given over two hundred years ago by
Kings and Dukes, who knew little of
the land and the indefinite limits which
they conveyed to relatives and friends
for little or no money, after their juris-
dictlon had been acquired by conquest
and in the face of the claims which
previous settlers had acquired.
After the English took possession of
New Netherland by conquest Charles
II, of England, on March -, 1864,
granted ''all the lands from the west
side of st. Croix river to the east side
Of Delaware bay and river'' to his
brother James, Duke of York, after
wards King James II. The considera-
ton was ''forty beaver skins yearly
when lawfully demanded" June "a,
1864, the Duke of York sold New Jer-
sey to Lord John Berkeley and George
Cartaret. March Is, 1878 Lord Berk-
ley sold West Jersey to John Fenwick
in trust for Edward Billings. Fenwick
and Billings sold nine-tenths of West
Jersey to VIM. Penn, GAVIN Lawrie
and Nicholas Lucas, W est Jersey Pro-
prietors.
The Wilmington Every Evening says:
s'The title of Delaware rests upon two
co~nveyances from the Duke of York to
William Penn, in 1852; n for the cir
Gle of twelve miles about New Castle
and the other for the country below
that, as far as Cape Henlopen. At the
time he made these deeds, the Duke of
York had received no grant from the
king for lands on the west side of the
Delaware, but through his governors at
New York he had been in the actual
possession and government of the ter
ritory now constituting Delaware, hay
ing conquered that territory from the
Dutch, who had also governed it as an
appendage of their government at New
Amsterdam, afterwards New York. A
few months after the dukes convey
C to Penn, the King made a grant
to the duke, covering the territory in
cluded in the previous conveyance by
the latter to Penn. This grant was in
tended to, and, it is maintained, did in
fact, perfect Penn's title to Delaware.
AT the same time, if the Kings grant
to the Duke of York be disregarded, it
is commended thai the duke was in act
ual possession, and was capable in law
OF making a good conveyance to Penn,
and that Penn took a good title to the
Delaware counties"
The New Jersey authorities deny
that the alleged 12-mile circle grant
was ever legally made or legally deliv-
cred by King Charles II to the Duke of
York, and if it has a legal existence 1t
cannot and should not be construed to
include any part of the bed of the river
easterly of the middle, and no right Of
jurisdiction or fishery in said river ex-
cept equal and concurrent rights with
New Jersey.
The alleged l2-mile circle grant con-
ficts in New Jersey with the first grant
of Charles II to the Duke of York.
who must have been drunk or some
what daft to make such a grant. While
King Charles II's grant calls for the
west side of st. Croix river, yet the
British jurisdiction now goes only to
the middle and Maine fishermen have a
right to half of the river. Why then
should Delaware legally claim any more
in the Delaware river than the British
government claims in the st. Croix riv-
er, when the dividing line was made by
the same grant?
After due consideration the controy-
ersy has been settled in a wise and lust
manner The citizens of both states
have by the agreement all the rights
they have possessed in the past 240
years. New Jerseymen are more than
pleased and Delawareans should be con-
tented.