Section VI - Massey Data Bank

One Maryland Massey Family by George Langford, Jr. 1901-1996 ©Cullen G. Langford and George Langford, III, 2010

Maryland Land Records, Kent County, DD #3, pp. 526,527,528
Daniel Massey petition, November 28, 1771

Frederick Absolute Lord Proprietary of the Province of Maryland and Avalon Lord Baron of Baltimore etc. Messrs. Augustine Boyer, Alexander Baird, John Wilmer, and William Woodall of Kent County, gentlemen. Greeting; whereas Daniel Massey of Kent County aforesaid by his humble petition exhibited to the Justices of Kent County Court has set forth that your petitioner is seized of a tract of land lying and being in Kent County aforesaid called Spring Garden, the bounds of which are become obsolete.  He therefore prayed us grant him a commission to such purposes as we should think meet to take depositions to perpetuate the same land or any other land whereon it may depend or relate. Which petition is granted, and it being suggested that you are capable and substantial freeholders in the said county, and we having confidence in your prudence and integrity have thereupon assigned, commissioned, and appointed you or any three or two of you and by these presents to give unto you or any three or two of you full power and authority, you having first taken an oath before our justices or some one of them duly and impartially to examine and certify the evidences concerning the premises and to issue summons for all such evidences as shall be to you nominated by the petitioner or other persons concerned to appear before you at a certain day [to] take by you appointed upon thereof land the boundaries whereof are as aforesaid to be proved perpetuated and to examine such evidences separately and apart upon their corporal oath taken by you administered of their knowledge of the several bounds of the aforesaid land and carefully to deduce what these evidences shall declare into writing in the presence of the parties concerned and reurn the same to our County Clerk to be recorded. Provided you be not any way related to any of the parties nor interested in the lands and before your meeting on the land aforesaid where all parties concerned live in the county aforesaid and where they are not known you affix public notes at the parish church door wherein the said land lies three Sundays at least before your meeting intimating your instruction and the time of your meeting and where all parties are known and any of them live out of the county aforesaid notice shall be given by affixing a note to the parish church door in which such party doth reside forty days at least before your meeting and you are to return a certificate of such notice given and of all actings and proceedings in and about the premises fairly and definitely an distinctly wrote and closed up together with this commission under your hands and seals without delay before our Justices of our County Court there to be recorded in perpetual memory. Witness Thomas Smith, Esquire, Presiding Justice of our said court this second day of December in the 20th year of our Dom. 1770. D. Dulany clerk April 4, 1771. Alexander Baird and Augustine Boyer duly qualified to execute the within commission before John S. Wilmer qualified at the same time before: Samuel Thompson Kent County aforesaid: The deposition of Joseph Rogers of Kent County aged forty years or thereabouts deposes and saith that Daniel Massey told him about 10 or 12 years ago and likewise has heard it publicly talked of by others that a black oak tree now down between Daniel Massey's house and the road that leads from the head of Sassafras [River] to the head of Chester [River]bwas the beginning tree of a tract of land called Spring Garden.  He likewise understood that the said tree was the corner tree of Dennis Dulany's land. Isaac Rogers Kent County aforesaid.  The deposition of Henry Clark of Kent County aged 58 years or thereabouts to deposeth and sayeth that Daniel Massey some years ago told him that a black oak tree now down between Daniel Massey's house and the road that leads from the head of Sassafras to the head of Chester was the beginning tree of a tract of land called Spring Garden and he saith further that he understood the said tree was the corner tree of Dennis Dulany's land. Henry Clark Tent County aforesaid.  The deposition of John Broxton of Cecil County aged 61 or thereabouts deposeth and sayeth that when he lived on Dennis Dulany's land in Kent County that about 30 or 40 years ago he was a chain bearer  in running out Dennis Dulany's land; he understood the Dennis Dulany's corner tree was a bounded tree of Simogar's land which tree is now down and lies between Daniel Massey's house and the road that leads from the head of Sassafras to the head of Chester. John Broxton Kent County aforesaid.  In obedience to a commission out of Kent County Court bearing date the second day of December 1770 to us, Augustine Boyer, Alexander Baird, and John Lambert Wilmer, directed empowering us to examine at a convenient time and on a tract or parcel of land called Spring Garden possessed by Daniel Massey of the County aforesaid all such evidence upon their disposal their corporal oaths as should be produced to us by the aforesaid Daniel Massey concerning the bounds of the aforesaid Spring Garden or of any other lands whereon the aforesaid Spring Garden shall depend and pursuant to said commission we having set up public notes at the parish church and at other public places more than 30 days before the executions thereof and we the aforesaid commissioners having met on this land aforesaid according to appointment proceeded to take the above depositions and swear the above evidences to be produced by the aforesaid Daniel Massey who being sworn on the holy Evangelist of Almighty God deposed and said as before. Augustine Boyer Alexander Baird John Lambert Wilmer Recorded this 28th day of November 1771. D. Dulany clerk