Cheney has also been spelled: Chain, Chainey, Chania, Chaney,
Chany, Cheyney, and China.
On November 21, 1738, Charles Cheney was granted a warrant for 100 acres called Cheney's Delight in Prince George's County on the east side of the Antietam. This land was eventually in Washington County.
The first European settlements in Maryland were made in 1634 when English settlers created a permanent colony.
Isaac Cheney, Thomas Cheney of Washington County Petition of Isaac Cheney and Thomas Cheney of Washington County,
that Charles Cheney, the grandfather of your petitioners on 6 June 1752 obtained out of the land office of the (then) province of Maryland a warrant for 50 acres of land pursuance of which a survey was made and a certificate thereof returned by the name of Cheney’s Delight, lying in Frederick county, but in that part thereof now Washington County and containing 96 acres,
for which the said Charles Cheney fully compounded and paid so that permission was given by the agent of the then propriotor for patent to issue thereon
which permission was however invalidated by the subsequent order of the then governor of the Province
that the said Charles Cheney afterwards departed this life, having first made and duly executed his last will and testament which he bequeathed in the first place to his son, Jeremiah Cheney,
all his lands lying below a bunch of mulberry trees being six in mumber and beginning at said mulberry trees and running North 70 degrees West to the given line of Cheney’s Delight
with a proviso that if patent should not be obtained for the said Cheney’s Delight, the said Jeremiah Cheney should become entitled to 30 acres of a tract of land called Gading by a descriptive location of the same contained in the said provisional bequest.
That the said Charles Cheney then proceeded to bequeath to his sons John Cheney and Nathan Cheney all the rest of his lands to be equally divided between them and directed that his sons, Jeremiah, John and Nathan should pay equal costs in case of a law suit for .
Your petitioners further represent that the aforesaid John Cheney departed this life intestate before the year 1785, leaving several children and among them, your petitioner, Thomas Cheney, his oldest son and heir-at-law; that the aforesaid Nathan Cheney also departed this life intestate, before the year 1785, leaving several children and among them, your petitioner Isaac Cheney, his oldest son and heir-at-law.
Petitioners ask for patent to land Cheney’s Delight.
/S/ Isaac Cheney, Thomas Cheney.
Patent issued 10 December 1804
Maryland LW&P, 1801-1808, FHC Film 0013131, page 308
A land patent is an exclusive land grant made by the government. The certificate that grants the land rights is also called first-title deed and final certificate. In the United States, all land can be traced back to the original land patent.
Maryland was established with religious freedom for Catholics. The colonial economy was based on tobacco cultivated by Africans who had been enslaved.
