Proclamation Creating Jefferson County, 1797

PROCLAMATION CREATING JEFFERSON COUNTY

[OHS:Sargent Papers:ADS]

[July 29, 1797]

Territory of the United States Northwest of the river Ohio

[L.s.] Winthrop Sargent acting as Governour

To all Persons unto whom these Presents shall come Greeting

Whereas by an Ordinance of Congress bearing Date the thirteenth of July one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven for the Settlement of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the river Ohio it has been provided that for the due Execution Process civil and criminal the Governour shall make proper Division of the said Territory and proceed from Time to Time as Circumstances may require to lay out the same into Counties & Townships—

And Whereas it has been represented to me that the Population in Washington County has so increased as to render a Division thereof necessary for the purposes before mentioned—And that a new County should be erected and laid off

Now know ye therefore—that in Virtue of the powers vested in me by the United States I do ordain by these Presents, that all and singular the Lands lying & and being within the following Boundaries—Viz:

Beginning upon the Bank of the Ohio river where the Western Boundary of Pennsylvania crosses it, and down the said river to the Southern Boundary of the Fourth Township in the third Range (of those seven ranges of Townships that were surveyed in Conformity to the Ordinance of Congress of the twentieth of May one thousandseven hundred and Eighty five) and with the said southern Boundary west to the South west Corner of the Sixth Township of the Fifth range—thence North along the western Boundary of the said Fifth Range to the Termination thereof;thence due west to the Muskingum river and up the same to, and with, the Portage between it and the Cayahoga river—thence down Cayahoga to Lake Erie—thence Easterly along the Shores of the Lake to the western Boundary of Pennsylvania and South with the same to the Place of Beginning

Shall be a County named and hereafter to be known and called by the Name of the County of Jefferson—which said County of Jefferson shall have and enjoy all and singular the jurisdictions, rights, Liberties and Immunities whatsoever to a County appertaining, and which any County that now is, or hereafter may be erected and laid off, shall or ought to enjoy conformably to the Ordinance of Congress before mentioned—

In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my Hand and affixed the public Seal at Steubenville in the County aforesaid this twenty ninth Day of July a.d. one thousand seven hundred and ninety seven and of the Independence of the United States the twenty Second—

Winthrop Sargent

[Endorsed] of the Governour fixing the Boundaries of Jefferson County⁷⁶

⁷⁶See Journal Exec. Procs., same date, post, III, 476