AREA HISTORY:  Borough of Hanover, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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THE BOROUGH OF HANOVER – Page 573

DURING the year 1728, John Digges, a petty Irish nobleman of Prince George’s County, Md., 
obtained a grant for 10,000 acres of the rich agricultural lands which now surround the town 
of Hanover.  When Lord Baltimore gave this grant, the land was thought to be in the province 
of Maryland.  The conflicting claims concerning the land and the difficulties of the early 
settlers, are fully given in an article, headed “Digges’ Choice,” in the front part of this 
work, to which the reader’s attention is directed.  Digges’ tract extended into what is now 
Adams County.  A few of the first settlers were Catholics, but as early as 1731, some thrifty 
Germans, the descendants of whom are now among the most prominent citizens of the community, 
came and took possession of most of this fertile land.

The following is a copy of one of John Digges’ bonds to give at some future time an absolute 
title to the land which was granted him: 

Know all men by these presents, that I, John Digges, of Prince George’s County, in the 
Province of Maryland, Gent. am held and firmly bound unto Adam Faurney (Forney), of 
Philadelphia county, in the Province of Pennsylvania, Farmer and Taylor, in the full and Just 
sum of Sixty pounds current money of Maryland, to which payment well and truly to be made and 
done, I bind myself, my Heirs, Executors and Administrators, firmly by these presents.  Sealed 
with my seal and dated this fifty day of October, Anno Domino, 1731.

The cordition of the above obligation is such that if the above bound John Digges, his Heirs, 
Executors or Administrators, shall and will at the reasonable request of the above Adam 
Faurney, make & order by sufficient conveyance according to the custom and common usage of the 
Province of Maryland, a certain parcell of land containing one hundred and fifty acres, 
already marked out by the above named Adam Faurney, near a place known by the name of Robert 
Owings’ Spring, and on the same tract of land where the said Robert Owing now Dwells in the 
Province of Maryland, then this obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and 
virtue in Law.

                                         John Digges,
Sealed and Delivered in the Presence of us,
     George Douglass,
     Johann Peter Zarich.

The “Annals of Hanover,” by M. O. Smith, to whom we are indebted for many facts in the history 
of Hanover, gives the following names of persons, who were among the first settlers on 
“Digges’ Choice”:

Adam Forney and Peter Zarich, in 1731; David Young, Adam Miller, Adam Messier, John Lemmon, 
1732; Valentine and Conrad Eyler, in 1734; Henry Sell and Martin Kitzmiller, 1736; Jacob and 
Derrick Youngblood, Peter Raysher, Adam Forney, 1737; while Charles Jones, Peter Youngblood, 
Andrew Shriver, Matthias Marker, Peter and William Olers, Jacob Banker, and Peter Welby came 
before 1737.  By 1741, Herman Updegraef, shoe-maker, Peter Shultz, blacksmith, Leonard Barnes, 
Peter Ensminger, Matthias Ullery or Ullrich, and William Loyston, and many others.

There was no place in the whole history of Pennsylvania where so many intricate points of law 
came up for discussion and decision, concerning the land titles, as around Hanover.  These 
conflicting claims of Pennsylvania and Maryland were once the topic for discussion by the king 
in council, and were supposed to be finally settled when Mason and Dixon’s line was run, which 
crosses the turnpike six miles south of Hanover.  Action in the courts continued until nearly 
the period of the Revolution, when jurisdiction, by royal permission, was extended to the 
boundary line in 1774.  By a letter from William Digges, dated “York County, Hanover Town, 
April 18, 1774,” by James Tilinghman, it appears there were yet “unsold divers parcels of the 
tract of land known by the name of Digges’ Choice,” and purchasers had offered and contracts 
deferred on account of the boundaries of the tract not having been ascertained; he states that 
he had applied to Archibald McClean, who is well acquainted with the lines thereof and 
settlements adjoining, and who also resides within the same, for a survey, but who declined, 
without having an order from the proprietaries.  (See Affidavits II Archives 76-83).