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Valley, reduce it to a point at the Susquehanna, and make the county quite irregular." By an act of Assembly, passed February 9, 1751, the difficulty was settled, and the present dividing line of the two counties explained and ascertained. The territory of Cumberland was afterwards curtailed by the erection of Bedford in 1771, of Northumberland in 1772, of Franklin in 1784, of Mifflin in 1789, and of Perry in 1820.

*

The Court of Common Pleas and the Criminal Courts were first held at Shippensburg, but were removed to Carlisle in 1751 after the town was laid out. The Orphans' Court, during the years 1750 and 1751, was not fixed to any certain place, but seems to have followed the persons of the Judges. At one time it was held at "William Anderson's," another time at "Antrim," sometimes at "Shippensburg," and then again at "Peter's Town."

In 1751, the Commissioners and Assessors of Cumberland county, in behalf of "the far greater part of the inhabitants," presented a petition to the Assembly, representing that the Trustees, in pursuance of the act of Assembly erecting the county, had made return to the Governor of a place at a branch of Connogochiego creek, eight miles from Shippensburg, on the great road to Virginia, praying the location of a court house and prison there, and submitting Shippensburg to the Governor's choice, which they were fully persuaded would have quieted the whole county, though it was north east of the centre; yet that it had pleased the Governor to remove the courts of justice to Le Tort's spring, almost at one end of the county; and asking the Assembly to take into consideration their grievances, the Governor, though repeatedly applied to,

* The following is a literal copy of the first record in the Court of Quarter Sessions:

At a Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace held at Shippensburg for the County of Cumberland the twenty-fourth day of July in the twenty-fourth year of the Reign of his Majesty King GEORGE the Second Annoq. Dom. 1750,

Before Samuel Smith Esquire and his Bretheren Keepers of the Peace of our said Lord the King and his Justices assign'd to hear and determine divers Felonies Trespasses &c,

Dominus Rex

VS

Bridget Hagen.

Sur Indictmt. for Larceny, not guilty & now ye deft ret her pl and submits to ye Ct. And thereupon it is considered by the Court and Adjudged that ye sd Bridget Hagen Restore the sum of Six pounds seventeen shillings & sixpence lawfull money of Penna unto Jacob Long ye owner and make fine to ye Governor in ye like sum and pay ye costs or prosecution & receive fifteen Lashes on her bare back at ye Public Whipping post & stand committed till ye fine & fees are paid.

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having refused them redress. They alleged that it would always impoverish them to carry and expend their money at the extremity of the county, whence it would never circulate back again; that neither the interests of the Proprietaries nor the prosperity of the town of Carlisle would be advanced by changing the seat of justice, and that no good wagon road could be made across the North Mountain "until beyond Shippensburg up the valley."

Several citizens of the eastern end of the county, on the other hand, denied, in a written communication to the Assembly, that no good road could be made over the mountain "from Shippensburg downwards," for that they had "in company with Daniel Williams, their representative, viewed and considered the Gap called Stevens's," and were satisfied that as the whole ascent was but sixty or seventy perches, "by traversing it once or twice, ordinary wagons might have an easy passage over it."

The Governor, on his part, directed his Secretary to say to the Assembly that he "never saw any paper from the Cumberland Trustees, such as referred to by the petitioners, and therefore admires at the boldness of the petitioners who must have asserted that fact upon hearsay." Here this controversy tripartite seems to have terminated, and the courts remained at "Le Tort's spring," whither the Governor had removed them.

The settlers at that early day had but little regard to the quality of the soil upon which they located, if they could but fix their habitations near to running water. A number of them, therefore, settled near Sherman's creek upon lands not at that time purchased from the natives. In 1750, Richard Peters, taking with him his Majesty's magistrates of Cumberland, and the celebrated Conrad Weiser, dispossessed several families who had there built cabins. Their dwellings were burned to the ground, and the trespassers held in recognizances to appear and answer at the next Court of Quarter Sessions at Shippensburg; and also bound in bonds to the Proprietaries to remove immediately with their cattle and effects.

The town of Carlisle was laid out in 1751, in pursuance of the following letter of instructions. By direction of the Pro

prietaries, a re-survey of the town and lands adjacent was made by Colonel Armstrong in 1762.

"INSTRUCTIONS

"To Nicholas Scull, Esquire, Surveyor General, which will serve likewise for Mr. Cookson.

"Several places having been recommended to me since the erection of the new County of Cumberland over the River Susquehanna, for the Situation of the County town, I have taken time to give them all a just consideration with their respective conveniences and inconveniences, and at length I determined to place the Town somewhere on the Waters issuing from Le Tort's Spring into the River Conedogwinet, as well because it is the nearest situation to the Centre of the County on the East side that will admit of proper supplys of good water, meadow, pasture, timber, stone, lime and other necessaries and conveniences for such a Town, as that it answers best to the paths over the Blue Hills, to the two large Rivers of Conedogwinet and Yellow Breeches running in its neighborhood into the Susquehanna, and to the trade, both with the Indians and with the City of Philadelphia, as that there is said to be about it a wholesome, dry, limestone Soil, good air, and abundance of vacant land well covered with a variety of Wood. Having come to this resolve, I ordered Mr. Cookson to purchase such plantations on this spring as would give the most healthy and commodious Situation, and being informed by him that the purchases are finished, and that he waits there for my further orders, I have thought proper to dispatch you to him, that you may assist him in finding out the properest place for the site of the Town, and in doing this I give it both of you in charge to take into your consideration the following matters, viz: the Health of the Citizens, the goodness and plenty of water, with the easiest method of coming at it, its Commodiousness to the great road leading from Harris's Ferry to the Potowmac, and to other necessary Roads as well into the neighboring County, as over the Passes in the Blue Mountains.

"When you have examined the Country about this place, so as to consult these necessary points in the best manner possible, then you may proceed to mark the place of the Centre and the outlines, conforming yourselves in all things to the Proprietaries plan and Instructions herewith delivered to you, but in doing

this you are to have a special regard to the Situation of the Proprietary Lands, so as that upon the Encrease of the Town, the Lots may all be within Lands belonging to the Proprietaries, and the Roads to the Town pass thro' them in the most advantageous manner; and to the end that I may form my own Judgment of this, you are not absolutely to fix or publish any particular place, but to lay down on a draught the Scite, as in your Judgment of the Town, with the Proprietary Lands and places contiguous, the Courses of the Creek, of the great road, as it goes from the ferry to Shippensburg, and other necessary Roads, the courses and distance of the River Conedogwinet, and Yellow Breeches, together with the quality of the Soil, at and near the Town, and between it and those Rivers.

"You are likewise to survey what other vacant Lands there are within five miles of the Town for the use of the Proprietaries on your General Warrant, as I am informed by them that the Surveyors have strangely neglected their Interest in this County.

"When you have finished this Business, you and Mr. Cookson are to proceed to the Town of York, and as there is great confusion amongst the People there, you are to use your utmost endeavors, to regulate all matters relating to the Lots taken or built on there, and what cannot be done by you on the spot, you are to report to me, that I may determine and give the proper instructions, and in this you are likewise to consider and conform to the Proprietary Instructions herewith delivered relating to the Town of York.

"April 1, 1751, at Philadelphia.

"JAMES HAMILTON."

When the town was first located, it extended no further than the present North, South, East and West streets. All the surrounding country now within the borough limits was purchased back by Mr. Cookson from the settlers, for the Proprietaries, and was designed as commons. Subsequently, however, principally in the years 1798, 1799, and 1800, the "additional lots" and “out lots" were laid out and sold to the citizens, but not without the remonstrance of a number of the inhabitants, who held a town meeting on the subject, and declared that the original lots had been purchased from the Proprietaries upon a condition verbally expressed, that the Proprietaries' lands ad

joining the town should remain commons forever for the benefit of the poor. Because of this dissatisfaction, the payment of quit-rents, which had been annually collected by the agents of the Penns, was interrupted for many years, and eventually their recovery was judiciously determined to be barred by lapse of time.

The first tax upon the citizens of Carlisle, of which we have any account, was laid in December, 1752, and amounted to £25. 9s. 6d.

In October, 1753, a treaty of "amity and friendship" was held at Carlisle with the Ohio Indians, by Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Morris, and William Peters, Commissioners. The expenses of this treaty, including presents to the Indians, amounted to fourteen hundred pounds.

Shortly after this period, a dispute arose between the Governor and Council, and the Assembly, on the subject of a complaint made by the Shawanese Indians, that the Proprietary Government had surveyed all the lands on the Conodoguinet into a manor, and driven them from their hunting-ground, without a purchase, and contrary to treaty. It was said by the Assembly that when the treaty was held at Carlisle, Big Beaver, a Shawanese chief, made a speech to the Commissioners, asserting the right of his tribe to the lands on the Conodoguinet, and complaining of the conduct of the Governor. By the Governor and Council it was alleged that no such thing had occurred, and that at a treaty held in 1754, the same Shawanese chiefs, who were at Carlisle the year before, made the "strongest professions of their friendship" without any complaint "on account of the same tract of land." They alleged, too, that the Shawanese never had any claim to the Conodoguinet lands; for that "they were Southern Indians, who being rendered uneasy by their neighbors," had settled on these lands in 1698, with the permission of the Susquehanna Indians and the Pro-prietary, William Penn.

No compensation being made to the Shawanese, they removed northward, and finally put themselves under the protection of the French, in league with whom they were especially distinguished for their hostility to the Colonists. In more recent times, this tribe, under their famous chief Tecumthe, seem not to have forgotten their former animosities.