Crow's Lessee v. Scott

EJECTMENT for a tract of land called Crow's Addi tion., lying in Kent County. At the trial of this cause, the plaintiff having made his title under a patent from the Lord Proprietary, bearing date the 22d of May, 1729, to the tract of land for which the ejectment was brought, and having also proved the beginning and the course and distance thereof, as was laid down upon the plat filed in the cause. The defendant offered in evidence to the Jury a patent from the Lord.Proprietary to William Hemsley, for a tract of land called Pentridge, bearing date the 10th day of January, 1670, which was laid down on the plat returned. And in order conclusively to establish the bounds of that tract of land, also produced in evidence a paper under the seal of Kent County Court, which was a transcript of the proceedings of commissioners, pursuant to an act of Assembly, enti- ¹⁸³ ' tied,ct An act for ascertaining the bounds of land,” &c. setting forth the meeting of the commissioners on the 6th day of June, 1720, and all their proceedings, in compliance with the act of Assembly, and their final determination, to wit: “ The commissioners being met on the said land a according to appointment, the petitioners being present, a as also William Crow, surveyor, produces the original a patent of the said land called Pentridge, to the commise£ sioners, which said patent expresses the said land to 6£ begin at a bounded poplar, &c.

It is ordered, that the a surveyor begin at the aforesaid poplar, &c. The com» a missioners, after mature deliberation, and having heard a all persons concerned, and the circumstances nearest u concerning, do order the surveyor to return plots and i£ certificates as followeth, beginning, &c. the same to be ££ and remain the certain and undoubted bounds for ever.” Then follows the certificate and plat returned by the surveyor. To which transcript was annexed the certificate of the clerk of Kent County, that the proceedings were truly copied from the records of Kent County. Whereupon the plaintiff produced as a witness, James Smith, the present clerk of Kent County Court, who, upon his examination deposed, that he was clerk to the commission for Kent County, under a commission from the then Governor, by virtue of an act of Assembly made the 22d April, 1718, entitled, ££ An act for ascertaining the bounds of land within <£ this Provinceand that a book was by the said commissioners delivered to him as their clerk to enter their proceedings in; that accordingly he did enter therein such proceedings as had, during his said clerkship to the commissioners aforesaid been by them had; (which same book the said James Smith produced in Court j) that he was at the same time, and