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expressly recognized in the charter. (Note that the early patents for
lands granted by the Penns called for "quit-rents" of about one pence
per acre.) "All agree that tenures existed before the Revolution.
The Divesting Act of 1779 (1 Smith's Laws, 480; Purd., 3662) con-
ferred all right, estate, etc., of the Proprietaries together with the
royalties, franchises, lordships, etc., upon the Commonwealth, freed
and discharged of all reversions, charges, incumbrances, titles, ete
of the Proprietaries (except that the Proprietaries still owned their
private estates and their Tenths or Manors). Section nine cancelled
all quit rents (except those reserved in grants of Manor lands)
reserved in any early patents. The Legislature appropriated 130,000
pounds to the Penns in remembrance of the "Founder of Pennsyl-
vania. (Sec. 49, post-see what England did.) An Act of 1781 (2
Smith's Laws, 532) provided that grants of public lands should be free
of reservations, royalties, quit rents, or otherwise, so that the owners
should hold their lands "in absolute and unconditional property,"
except for the reservation to the State of a fifth part of all gold or
silver ore (Sec. 49, post). "All our lands are held mediately or imme-
diately of the State, but by titles purged of all the rubbish of the dark
ages, excepting only the feudal names of things not any longer feudal.
Nothing about statutory escheat (Sec. 308, et seq., post) is feudal except you
the name. Allegiance is due the sovereign state irrespective of tenure

99

or real estate ownership. The reservation of a fifth part of the gold or silver is by contract. State patents acknowledge a pecuniary consideration, and they stipulate for no fealty, no escheat, rent service or other feudal incident.

In Jackson and Goss on Landlord and Tenant in Penna., pp. 1 to 14, will be found the conflicting opinions upon this subject of tenure in Penna.

THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA AND ITS BOUNDARIES

SECTION 28. The Charter granted by Charles II to William Penn described the grant as embracing all the lands bounded on the east by the Delaware River, on the north "unto" the 43rd meridian line (42° N), on the west by a line which was five degrees in longitude west "to be computed from the said eastern bounds," and on the south by the 40th meridian line to a circle drawn at 12 miles distance from New Castle, Delaware. "Penn was the largest landowner in the world,

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possessing by royal grant 47,000,000 acres, and empowered to grant it to others in any way he saw fit": Barr Ferree's Pennsylvania Primer. (Perhaps there was a larger land owner several centuries before. "Noah made a will, devising the whole world to his sons, according to their respective proportions": McKean, C. J., in Lewis vs. Maris, 1 Dallas, 278, 286.)

Each boundary line involved disputes and conflicting claims and it is appropriate to outline briefly these boundary matters in connection with "tenures" and land titles of Penna. See Purd., 4424, et seq., under "State Boundaries" for numerous statutes.

The Eastern Boundary

SECTION 29. Some legislation was necessary to settle the respective rights of New Jersey and Penna. in the waters and islands of the Delaware River, but the matters do not relate particularly to real estate law. In a note in 2 Smith's Laws, p. 129, reference is made to this legislation.

The Indian Titles 17

SECTION 30. It was William Penn's policy to treat with the Indians and to secure from them quit claims for the lands within the boundaries, Between 1682 and 1784 deeds or treaties were secured for all land within the limits of the State from the Indian tribes. Severe penalties were provided (even capital punishment) if any individual attempted to settle upon or purchase lands which had not been quit claimed by the Indians to the Proprietaries or the State. 2 Smith's Laws, pages 105, 124. Chief Justice Marshall held that a conveyance by an Indian to a white man was void: Johnson vs. McIntosh, 8 Wheaton, 543; Sec. 359, post.

The Connecticut Claimants\\

SECTION 31. Charles II granted a charter to the Colony of Connecticut in 1662, which, perhaps, embraced a part of what he granted in 1681 to Penn. In 1754 two hundred persons, calling themselves the "Susquehanna Company", from Connecticut secured grants from that Colony and purchased from the Indians a large tract called the "Seventeen Townships" or the "Certified Townships" in what is now a part of Luzerne and Bradford Counties. Pennsylvania "purchased"

the same land from the Indians in 1768. The settlers from Connecticut
actually settled the country, while a number of grantees under Penn-
sylvania grants held merely paper titles-"David Meade warrants".
(Chestnut vs. Scudder, 7 S. and R., 102.) In 1782 congressional com-
missioners decided that the land was properly within Pennsylvania...
The Penna. Legislature and courts conceded the equitable basis of
the Connecticut claimants and by Act of 1787 "confirmed" their title
but it was not until 1799 that an Act effectually accomplished an
amicable adjustment of the rival claims. This history is set forth in
an opinion by Judge Scott of Luzerne County in Barney vs. Sutton,
2 Watts, 31, and by Justice Moschzisker in Kingston Trustees vs. Coal
Co., 265 p. 238.

The Southern Boundary and the Mason and Dixon Line

SECTION 32. When Markham, Penn's first deputy, reached Pennsylvania in 1682, he had difficulty with Lord Baltimore over the Southern Boundary and difficulties continued between the Penns and the successive Lords Baltimore. In 1732 articles of agreement were executed by which it was agreed that the line should be run by a commission. Commissioners failed in 1732, 1739 and 1750 to agree. It was necesnary for Penn to file a bill for specific performance of these articles and the relief was decreed in 1750 by Lord Chancellor Hardwicke: eavily Penn vs. Baltimore, 1 Ves. Sr., 444. Final adjudication was secured in 1760. Surveyors began in 1760 and spent three years in locating the acts in Maryland and Delaware lines. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon personam were sent out from England in 1763, as more skillful surveyors, and verified the three years' work, and ran the line toward the West. In 1767 Indian hostilities stopped the work at a point 244 miles west of Delaware, but it was finished in 1784 by agreement between Md. and Pa. A stone was erected at every mile and a marked stone every five miles. A 20 foot clearing is now along much of the line. In 1849 a revision by U. S. Engineers gave Maryland 2 acres. Penn's charter called for the 40th parallel but as that runs through Philadelphia the agreement of 1732 calls for 39° 43′ 26′′ N. latitude, as the Southern Boundary. (See 2 Smith's Law, p. 133, and various histories of Penna.)

Settlers claiming under Maryland grants of lands in Pennsylvania, if their claims antedated July 4, 1760, were given standing as though

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