Surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon were commissioned to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania.  Working from 1763 to 1767, they put a series of stones every mile along what became known as the Mason-Dixon Line.  Every 5 miles they put in a Crownstone bearing the coats of arms of the second Lord Baltimore (Cecil Calvert) on one side and William Penn on the other.  These were carved English limestone posts.  Over 200 years later the carvings are still there, but they do show a lot of wear and tear.  On this page are pictures we took of three crownstones that are along the highways in or near towns along the DE and MD border.

 
Maryland Flag and a picture of the Fenwick Island (DE) Crownstone bearing the Calvert Family Crest

Delmar Roadside Pullover
(right side of road heading west 6.5 miles from Delmar on Rt. 54 towards Mardela Springs, MD).
Close-up of the 4 stones, below:


 

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Marydel Crownstone Site

(on the left side of road before "Welcome to DE" sign)
close-up of stone, below:

Penn Family Crest on the 1763 Crownstone at Marydel, MD and PA State Flag

Sign at the Fenwick Island Lighthouse from the Delaware Public Archives:

"This stone monument, erected April 26, 1751, marks the eastern end of the Transpeninsular Line surveyed 1750-1751 by John Watson and William Parsons of Pennsylvania and John Emory and Thomas Jones of Maryland. This line established the east-west boundary between Pennsylvania's 'Three Lower Counties' (now Delaware) and the Colony of Maryland. It established also the middle point of the peninsula, 35 miles to the west. The stone bears the coat of arms of the Calverts on the south side and the Penns on the north.  It was accepted 1760 and finally ratified 1769 by King George III."

DE has only three counties (Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex) which were originally the lower three counties of PA. The 1751 Transpeninsular Line bisects the peninsula almost 70 miles from the Atlantic Ocean at Fenwick Island to the Chesapeake Bay. Mason and Dixon accepted the mid-point of that line as the southwest corner of what is now Delaware. From that point on north is the Mason-Dixon Line, which then continues west forming the southern boundary of the commonwealth of PA.

The 40th Parallel and How It Affected the Boundary Between Maryland and Pennsylvania

Maryland's charter, granted in 1632, included old Philadelphia since it made the 40th parallel, which crosses the [Susquehanna] river near this point, her northern boundary. This charter conflicted with the charter given William Penn in 1681. After more than eighty years of legal disputes, a survey in 1763-67 fixed the boundary at the 39°- 43' parallel. This boundary acquired national fame as the Mason and Dixon Line.

[This sign is located along Rt. 441 (River Road) in Washington Boro, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.]