A partial answer, leaving you to do a little work on your own. The deed you cite (at Do Old 6:274) refers to "City of Annapolis (which is marked through in favor of) St. Maries". St. Marys City was the capital of Maryland in 1682, where the Land Office was. The clerk for the deed had inadvertently written the new capital (in 1716), and then fixed his error. All the surviving land records are maintained in one place, still in Annapolis. Unfortunately for you, the original survey and patent for SANDWICH (which is how it's listed), while indexed in plats.net, are not on-line. You can find the reference to it by signing into plats.net for Dorchester, and on the search page, pick "Advanced" and type in Sandwich. You'll find this one on the second page, dated 1683, with two entries. To get the original record, you need to contact the Archives. For the tracing of sales after patent, you need to use the Do land records index in mdlandrec, which I assume is how you found his sale to West. Probate conveyances, of course, aren't there, and require plowing through the Prerogative Court and crossing your fingers. John Lyon "Bob Nichol" <bnichol@iname.com> wrote: >Hey, List-- > >I know that many of you are more familiar with these old deeds and >warrants than I, and I need help understanding a passage in one from >1716, in which Benjamin Nichols sells a Dorchester County tract called >Sandwick to Solomon West, to wit: > >"...Certificates of Survey thereof taken and returned into the Land >Office at the City of _____ [looks like "Orange"] St. Maries bearing the >date the Eighteenth of Aprill One thousand Six hundred Eighty Two and >there remaining...." > >--Where was/is this "City of ____ St. Maries" that had the records since >1682?  Where are they now?  Is it reasonable to believe that 1682 must be >the year that Benjamin Nichols acquired the land?