The General Assembly of Maryland in 1742 passed an act for “laying out and erecting a town on the South Side of the Eastern Branch of the Potowmack [sic] River … near a place called Garrison- Landing.” Sixty one-acre lots were divided up on the property to be sold to those agreeing to build houses on the lot within two years . The town was called Bladensburg reportedly after Thomas Bladen, whose term as provincial governor had begun that same year. Commissioners met on the land and sold the sixty lots, with exception of lots 47, 54 and 56 to different persons, from two shillings six pence to two pounds ten shillings.