Under the terms of the charter of Maryland as granted by King Charles I of England, Lord Baltimore and his heirs were given all the land in the colony, with power to dispose of the land in any manner they deemed fit. A land office was set up to administer land grants and collect revenues. Settlers who applied for land grants had to pay fees at every step of the process as they obtained surveys, patents and titles. During those early days, the outer limits of Baltimore County stretched into unexplored territory. The deed records abstracted here include lands that lie within present-day Baltimore City, Cecil and Harford Counties, and parts of Carroll, Anne Arundel, Howard and Kent Counties. Eleven deed books were abstracted for this volume, which is divided into 11 chapters. Each deed book spans a period of time ranging from one year to ten years. The entries are more or less chronological due to the fact that transactions were often recorded in the books at some later date.
A typical entry includes the date of transaction, names of grantors and grantees, their places of residence, acres of land involved and the names signed on the document. Other information is included when available, such as sales price, location of land, neighbors, chain of deed and landmarks. Spellings of names, places and things have been preserved in their original form, so the reader is encouraged to check all possible spellings of a name of interest. An every name index assists the researcher.
John Davis
(1996), 2008, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, index, 416 pp.
ISBN: 9780788405532
101-D9553
