Edward Palmer

• General Notes
  • Walter W. Preston, A.M. History of Harford County (Maryland) Press of Sun Book Offices, Baltimore, Maryland, p. 23.
    
    The first settlement at the head of the bay is supposed to have been made by Edward Palmer, a cultivated Englishman, on Palmer's, or Watson's Island at the mouth of the Susquehanna.  Palmer's Island lies in Cecil, but it lies between the two counties, and may be assumed that the settlers there extended into Harford, a few hundred yards away.  The fate of this settlement is uncertain, but Heal, the historian states that the letters of John Pory, secretary of the Virginia Company, which bear date previous to Claiborne's settlement on Kent Island say that he and others had made discovery in the great bay northward," where we left very happily settled nearly a hundred Englishmen, with a hope of good trade in furs.
    
    When Palmer's Island was taken by possession in 1637 by Lord Baltimore's agents, four servants were found and some books indicating that Palmer himself had resided there.  In a petition to the king of England by Capt. William Clayborne, protesting against interference by Lord Baltimore's people came over in the "Ark" and the "Dove" in 1633, they declared that the petitioner, previous to the coming of the Calverts, had discovered and settled a plantation and factory upon a small island in the mouth of the Susquehanna river.  The petitioner refers to the years 1627-8-9, so it is certain white men were familiar with the shore of the Susquehanna at that time. (Johnston's History of Cecil County)