This remarkable criminal served his long sentence and returned in 1819 to his old haunts, about Sunbury and the Selinsgrove, an aged man, but as merry as a cricket. Being a natural-born thief, he could not resist the temptation to steal everything upon which he could lay his hands.
The date of his death is unknown. But the late Dr. Robert Harris Awl, of Sunbury, said that some time after his return from serving his long sentence, he went one night to a mill in Union County to steal flour and falling through a hatchway sustained injuries which resulted in his death. It is said that when they came to bury him, the owner of the mill insisted that he should be buried deep. “For,” said he, “if it is not done he will return and steal mill, dam and all!”
It is not positively known whence this remarkable man came. Tradition says that he was a native of Connecticut. In that event he might have been among the emigrants to Wyoming, but on account of his evil propensities was banished to Sunbury as a punishment to Dr. Plunket and his people, for whom the Wyomingites bore no love. Neither is it known whether he had any family or property. His criminal record, however, would furnish material enough for a first-class romance.
Border Invasion by Thomas Cresap Ceased
After His Arrest, November 23, 1736
There was great conflict between the several Lords Baltimore, Proprietaries of Maryland, and the Penns, Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, over the boundary of their respective provinces, which lasted from the time William Penn first received his grant until the Mason and Dixon boundary line was surveyed in 1763–67.
Conestoga Township, in what is now Lancaster County, was originally organized about 1712. Prior to 1719 it was divided into East and West Conestoga. The western boundaries of the latter were not defined until 1722, when Donegal Township was erected and Chicques Creek was made its eastern boundary. Pequea Township seems to have been to the northeast of Conestoga, with not very well defined boundaries, and was probably erected about the year 1720.
Lord Baltimore selected a pliant and bold adventurer for his agent in this disputed territory named Thomas Cresap, aged twenty-six years, a carpenter by occupation, and in religious faith a Roman Catholic, same as the Calverts of Maryland. He was to go to Conejohela Valley and settle, where he built a cabin and established a ferry, on March 16, 1730, near James Patterson’s land.
In a joint statement made by James Patterson to Justices John Wright and Samuel Blunston they issued a warrant and wrote to Governor Patrick Gordon, October 30, 1732, and said: