proceeded
to declare as follows.
" That all the land lying and being in Dorchester county,
" and on the north side of Nanticoke river, butted and
" bounded as followeth: (beginning at the mouth of
" Chickawan creek, and running up the said creek, bounded
" therewith, to the head of the main branch of the same, and from
" the head of the said main branch, with a line drawn to the
" head of a branch issuing out of the north west fork of
" Nanticoke, known by the name of Francis Anderton's
" branch, and from the head of the said branch down the
" said Anderton's branch, bounded therewith, to the mouth
" of the same, where it falls into the said north west fork
" and from thence down the aforesaid north west fork,
" bounded therewith, to the main river; and so down the
" main river to the mouth of the aforesaid Chickawan creek;)
" shall be confirmed and assured, and by virtue of this act is
" confirmed and assured, unto Panquash and Annatoughquan,
" and the people under their government, or charge, and their
" heirs and successors forever; any law, usage, custom, or
" grant, to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding: To be
" held of the lord proprietary, and his heirs, lord proprietary
" or lord proprietaries of this province, under the yearly rent
" of one beaver skin, to be paid to his said lordship, and his
" heirs, as other rents in this province by the English used
" to be paid": and it was provided by this act that if the
indians should desert the said lands, the former grantees of
the proprietary might enter upon the same, and that those
grantees should not be liable to the payment of quit rents
until they should be in actual possession thereof.
By an act of 1711, ch. 1, upon a suggestion that the lands
formerly laid out for the Nanticoke indians were worn out,
and insufficient for their use, commissioners were appointed
to lay out three thousand acres on Broad Creek in Somerset
county, to the use of those indians; the lands to be valued
by a jury, and the value to be paid to the owners by the
public. They were to be bounded, and the lines marked on
trees, or by other land marks, to perpetuate the same. The
commissioners were to return fair certificates of their
proceedings to the provincial court, and to the court of Somerset
county, to be therein recorded. The lands so laid out and
paid for were vested in two persons named in the act, in trust
to the use of the indians, so long as they should occupy the
same, and to be afterwards disposed of as the general
assembly should direct, and such laying out, and payment were to
