Maryland Land Records, Kent County, JS #29 pg. 390-393
Commission to re-establish the boundaries of Mitchell's Chance: Dated June 5, 1761
 

June 5, 1761: Daniel Massey, Augustine Boyer, James Pearce and George Pearce of Kent County in Maryland are made members of a commission set up to re-establish the boundaries of a tract known as Mitchells Chance.  Depositions were taken from (1) William Sanders, age 55, who provided hearsay evidence from his brother Thomas Sanders, about the activity of one Thomas Jones, and about the adjoining tract, Pryors Neglect; and (2) Abraham Fowler, age 36, who provided similar evidence heard from Jacob Caulk. Daniel Massey and James Pearce signed the commission's opinion that the boundary markers between Mitchells Chance and Pryors Neglect were proven by the two witnesses. Simon Wilmer is Chief Justice of the court; Dennis Delany the Kent County clerk, and William Rasin qualified James Pearce.  Michael Carman produced the two witnesses to the commission.

  

Frederick Absolute Lord Proprietary of the Province of Maryland and Avalon Lord Mayor of Baltimore illegible to Messrs. Augustine Boyer Junior, James Pierce, Daniel Massey and George Pierce of Kent County, greeting: whereas Michael Carman of Kent County by his humble petition exhibited to the justices of Kent County Court on the third Tuesday in August 1760 hath set forth that the same petitioner is seized and possessed of a considerable part of a tract of land lying in Kent County called Mitchell's Chance the bounds of which have become obsolete and uncertain. He therefore prays us to grant him a commission devoted to such persons as we should term illegible empowering them to examine evidence as well concerning the boundaries of land as of any other lands whereon said lands depends whereas it hath appeared to us that the allegations in the petition aforesaid are true and that the prayer of the petitioner ought to be granted we therefore authorize and appoint you the said Augustine Boyer Junior, James Pierce, Daniel Massey and George Pierce or any three or two of you to be commissioners according to an act of assembly entitled, "An act for the ease of the inhabitants relating to the bounds of land." illegible You having first taken an oath before our County Court or some Magistrate of the same County duly impartially to examine and certified all such evidences as shall be to you or any three or two of you nominated by the said petitioner or any other person concerned to illegible appear before you or any two or three of you at a certain date to be by you appointed him upon the aforesaid land and to examine all such evidence upon their corporal oaths to be by you or any three or two of you administered concerning the boundaries of the said land called Mitchell's Chance or the bounds of any other lands on which this land illegible seized and possessed of dependent illegible that such evidences be by you reduced into writing and certified into our County Court aforesaid may there be recorded in perpetual memory agreeable to the act of assembly in such cases illegible and provided to the end that all persons may have notice you or any three or two of before your meeting on the land aforesaid to affix publish notes at the parish church where the said land lies three Sundays at least before your meeting intimating your intentions and the time of your meeting and if all persons interested are known and if any one of them live out of the county wherein the land lies such notice shall be given by affixing a note at the church door of the parish in which the party illegible forty days at least before your meeting and further you or any three or two of you are to return a certificate of your having given such notice as aforesaid with the examination of the evidences as shall be produced to you or any three or two of you and this commission to the mext County Court which shall be after the execution thereof under your hands to be recorded in perpetual memory. Witness Simon Wilmer Esquire Chief Justice of Our said Court this 23rd day of August in the tenth year of the Dominion 1760. (illegible 26th August) illegible.                                                                                                                                           Dennis Dulaney November the fourth, 1760. Then personally appeared the within Daniel Massey and George Pearce before me and qualified to execute the within commission without partiality favour or affection. Qualified before me.                                                                                                                                          James Pearce January 14, 1761. Mr. James Pearce qualified to the commission before:                                                                                                                                          William Rasin. To the Worshipful Justices of Kent County court: These are to certify that pursuant to a land commission illegible out of the said court the twenty third day of August Anno Domini seventeen hundred and sixty empowering us the subscribers to examine evidences on their corporate oaths to be by us administered of their knowledge concerning the boundaries of a tract of land called Mitchell's Chance or the bounds of any other lands that the bounds of the aforesaid lands depended on. We do hereby certify that on the fifteenth day of January Anno Domini seventeen hundred and sixty one we the commissioners appointed met on the land aforesaid in order to execute the said commission having first affixed notes up at the parish church where the said land lies three Sundays at least before such our meeting and have caused the like notes to be put up in the most public places in the said County as directed in the above illegible commission whereby all persons concerned in any lands adjacent to the said land called Mitchell's Chance being thereby informed to be present. There was produced unto us by Mr. Mitchell Carmen Esquire: William Sanders and Abraham Fowler, who being sworn in relation to the premises the tenor of their depositionsare are as follows viz.: The deposition of William Sanders aged fifty five years or thereabout concerning the land called Mitchell's Chance: The deponent saith that about twenty seven years ago his brother Thomas Sanders told him the deponent that at the place we now are or hereabouts a certain Thomas Janis proved on a land commission a hickory tree to be the second bounded tree of a tract of land called Pryors Neglect and that he the deponent further assessed that the boundaries of a tract of land called Mitchell's Chance dependeth on the boundaries of the aforesaid Pryors Neglect and further saith not.                                                                                                                                         William Sanders [his mark] January 15th, 1761. James Pearce, Daniel Massey The deposition of Abraham Fowler age 36 years or thereabouts: The deponent saith that about five years ago he the deponent heard Jacob Caulk say that at the place we now are or thereabouts there formally stood a hickory tree which was the second bounded tree of a tract of land called Pryors Neglect and that it had been proved there by a certain Thomas Jones and further saith not.                                                                                                                                         Abraham Fowler January 15, 1761. James Pierce, Daniel Massey. We the commissioners do hereby certify the within mentioned place showed to us by William Sanders and Abraham Fowler are proved by them to be the second bounds of that tract of land called Pryors Neglect is near the head of a valley issuing from where the main road formerly went up above Browning Mill and running from the said road easterly into the plantation where Abraham Fowler now lives and on the south side of the said Valley about twenty yards up the side of the hill at which place we the commissioners illegible a locust post with twelve notches on it without any information of any then presented as witness our hands this fifteenth day of January 1761.                                                                                                                                        James Pearce                                                                                                                                        Daniel Massey   Recorded this fifth day of June Anno Domini 1761 by                                                                                                                                        Dennis Dulaney clerk of Kent County