I managed to get hold of an old treatise from John Hopkins University Studies The Land System In Maryland, 1720-1765 by Clarence P. Gould, Ph.D. (Michael Fisher Professor of History in the University of Wooster) Baltimore, John Hopkins Press 1913 I thought it might help me understand the land history better and it did. Among the larger land owners in Frederick County in 1763 were John Diggs, Philip Key, Edward Diggs, Richard Snowden, Edward Dorsey and James Brooks - most or possibly all of them resided outside of Frederick County. There is a table on page 77 which indicates that in the 1752 Frederick County (from which Washington was carved in 1776) had 283,237 acres of patented land which belonged to 1,032 landholders with an average holding of 370.1 acres. p. 87 "Daniel Dulany was one of the first as well as one of the largest and most successful dealers in Frederick County. When he first took up large tracts in this region, it was generally thought he was on the road to financial ruin, but on his land was formed one of the earliest settlements. This start, combined with the favorable location, soon created on his property the metropolis of the Monocacy Valley. In 1745 Dulany himself laid out a town, which he called Frederick; he also gave land for churches, and seems to have assumed a sort of guardianship over the community." This passage is footnoted with "A letter signed by twenty-five German settlers read in part; "One of the Principal Gentlemen of this Country (Mr. Dulany) who lives at Annapolis, the Capital of this Province, was so kind as to Assist us wth 306 Pistoles & to free us from ye Captain's Power, we are Perswaded that this Gentlemen will be Serviceable to Aid and Assist all Germans that will Settle in this Province." (Calvert Papers, M.S., No. 295 1/2) p. 88 "Another place which developed in a manner very similar to Frederick was Hagerstown. Jonathan Hager, a German immigrant, settled in that region and took up land. Following the lead of Dulany, he built up his settlement, and after the close of the Indian Wars, laid out a town. Eddis writes: 'A German adventurer, whose name is Hager, purchased a considerable tract of land in this neighborhood, and with much discernment and foresight, determined to give encouragement to traders, and to erect proper habitations for the stowage of goods, for the supply of the adjacent country. His plan succeeded: he has lived to behold a multitude of inhabitants on land which he remembered unoccupied; and he has seen erected in places appropriated by him for that purpose, more than a hundred comfortable edifices, to which the name of Hager's Town is given, in honour of the intelligent founder.'" The author says, see also Sollers, "Jonathan Hager," in Society for the History of Germans in Maryland, second annual report. page 85 "At an early period Augustine Hermann took up a large tract known as Bohemia Manor in Cecil County and rented much of it out to Germans whom he brought over from the Delaware." Has anyone ever seen a list of the 25 German settlers at Frederick? It would be instructive if we knew those names, I think. Lauren Brantner