Thomas Cresap

Who was Thomas Cresap?

Colonel Thomas Cresap was an English-born pioneering settler in the state of Maryland, and an agent of Lord Baltimore in the 'Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary dispute' that would be known as Cresap's War. He is something of a founding father from the dark side in American Colonial history, both reviled and admired. During the dispute, Cresap became a notorious figure in the Conejohela Flats area—the lower Susquehanna Valley in the area south of Wright's Ferry—where his actions as an agent on behalf of his Patron Lord Baltimore who'd claimed the lands made him a wanted criminal in Pennsylvania. Cresap and his men were involved in several use of force incidents resulting in deaths acting to evict men who'd considered themselves legal settlers under Pennsylvania's Colonial Charter, but were to Lord Baltimore and Cresap's mind, just squatters. Because of the bloodshed during Cresap's War King George II issued an edict forcing a settlement of the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary dispute against the claims by Lord Baltimore. Cresap was held a villain in Pennsylvania, and something of a hero in Maryland, which has municipalities named after him.