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Archiver > PA-OLD-CHESTER > 2002-11 > 1037471283


From: "Stanley W. Cowan" <>
Subject: "Mount Hope," tract in Cecil County MD near Lewisville PA
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 13:28:52 -0500


I am trying to learn the location of a tract in Cecil Co., MD, called "Mount Hope." I believe it was on or very close to the PA-MD border, because the owners, Robert Withers and Robert Holly," were involved in a boundary dispute with my ancestor David Wherry of East Nottingham, PA, in 1729-1730.

I have a copy of a deed dated March 21, 1723/4, for the sale of Mount Hope by Mathias Van Bibber to Catherine and Mary Hollingsworth. Two years later, Catherine Hollingsworth married Robert Withers. The starting point of the metes and bounds in the deed is a "black oak tree standing on a high ridge at the head of a valley or small branch falling into the east side of the west branch of Elk River." I assume that the west branch of Elk River means Little Elk Creek.

I now have a question directed at anyone who lives in that area or is familiar with its terrain. There is a road that leads west from Lewisville, and then a mile or less out of town, another road branches off from it and runs southwest into Maryland. My best guess as to the location of this "high ridge" is just over the line near this road. Is there a spot in that area that answers that description? (After 278 years, I don't expect that the oak tree is still there. If it is, it should be an impressive specimen.)

I guess an even better question is whether anyone knows the actual location of Mount Hope?

Stan Cowan


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