In 1696  William Penn purchased the land that would later become York County from the Iroquois but lands west of the Susquehanna were not obtained until 1737 . The charter for Maryland was officially granted 1632, a proprietary of  Catholic George Calvert and, like Penn, subsequently his sons [Lords Baltimore] . The fourth Lord Baltimore claimed a large strip of what is now southwestern York  and southeastern Adams Counties  Pennsylvania  and,  in 1727, gave a grant of 10,000 acres  to Roman Catholic Marylander John Digges. The physical location of the warrant was not specified; Digges was empowered to settle "on whatever unimproved lands he pleased within the jurisdiction of his lordship"  and so the tract came to be known as "Digges' Choice in the Backwoods" or "Digges' Choice".
aaaaDigges survey of his land occuring in 1735 was one year following that in which the Penn Proprietors began issueing Blunstone Licenses in anticipation of  the probable purchase of lands west of the Susquehanna, the Indian title being then uncertain but illegal settlement from Pennsylvania already occuring with the result that the Penns were anxious to capitalize on european settlement of lands not yet deeded from the native peoples. There were  issued in the region of now Adams County Pennsylvania about twenty Blunstone Licenses   involving about 8000 acres on the upper Conewago, and two were issued for land on Marsh Creek [southern Adams] ⁸. Blunstone licenses were changed to warrants with the purchase in 1736  of  "all the land west of the Susquehanna to the setting sun"   and the region now known as Adams and York counties pertained to Lancaster Co., being thus enveloped with the 1736 purchase.  Within a short time, mostly Scots-Irish began to settle in the region of now Adams County involving the Bermudian, Conewago and Marsh Creek watersheds⁷. From the 1730's onward, early settlers -principally German, but also Scots, English and Irish - crossed the Susquehanna River and pushed into the fertile lands in and  surronding now Hanover [York County]   in the wake of Pennsylvania's treaties with the  Indians.¹⁰  and this settlement extended into the area now known as Adams County and York county west of the Susquehanna.
aaaWhile Pennsylvania was attending to and anticipating  the acquisition of native lands  and in 1735, John Digges [he and Lord Baltimore being certain the land pertained to Maryland]  located and surveyed 6, 822 acres in an area described as  lying on "Little Conewago Creek"  generally involving today's Littlestown [Adams Co] and  Hanover [York Co and on the southwestern extremity of the tract ] and the regions between, but including   specifically  "the Borough of Hanover,  Heidelberg Township ,and Penn aTownship, in what is now York County and Conewago, Germany, and Union Townships  in  Adams  County⁷ (Some sources place the grant in 1726⁷)^{. See footnote 1 .}    "By 1730, Digges and other Roman Catholic settlers from Maryland had settled in the area. At about the same time, German Protestants from eastern Pennsylvania and Germany directly made their first appearance"² .

^{Hanover Laid out in Digges Choice:} 
aaaaIn 1763, the first year of the Mason Dixon Survey,  Richard McAllister, a Scot-Irish innkeeper, who served in the Continental Army during the War of Independence¹², laid out the future town of Hanover [now second largest town in the county of York] in a hickory swamp still part of the  "disputed land" known as Digge's Choice and  at the junction of busy trade roads between York and Baltimore.  The York Daily Record reports that one account states McAllister [M'Alister¹¹] named the town Hanover to gain favor from the many Germans populating the area. Many people, including George Washington , called the town McAllistertown  [See George Washington diary entries describing this town, and Littlestown,  and their region of Penna] . By the time of Washington's visit, McAllister's tavern had long been a popular public house and Ben Frankin had been  an overnight guest. As a crossroads community, Hanover played host to many prominent citizens , including Martha Washington and General  "Mad Anthony" Wayne.⁶ See also  York County , Penna Title Page

Littlestown Laid out in are pertaining to Digges Choice: 

This region first saw settlement in the 1730s, with Andrew Schreiber [related to our Forney and Swope cousins] considered the first settler of the Conewago in 1734 and living about 3 miles east of now Littlestown. For 100 pairs of negro shoes the Schreibers purchased 100 acres.  In 1752, according to the records, there were forty persons living on tracts sold under the Maryland rights. ¹⁴.[included among whom was our Hoke ancestor who bought land in the region under Maryland rights in 1746. ] .  Although the region around Littlestown and in other portions far flung from it in  Adams County were  settled long before the town was conceived, Littlestown can still claim it is the earliest town of Adams County being laid out by Peter Klein [Klein is Little in German] in 1765, during the Mason Dixon Survey and before the Mason Dixon Line was established, although New Oxford, settled in 1755, sometimes claims that status. First known as Kleina Stedtle, it was then called Petersburg, and finally Littlestown.   Klein  was granted a patent in 1760 for 311 acres which he systematically arranged into the original 48 lots of the town we now know.  A similar concept was later  followed by James Gettys in regards to Gettysburg. Littlestown's lots were all  " 66-feet wide and 264 feet deep and sold for three pounds with the provision that the buyer pay an annual ground rent of seven shillings, six pence ($1.00)."¹⁴.  Nine years after Littlestown's founding, and one year after the Mason Dixon Line was determined,  a major road was undertaken passing through Littlestown  itself, part of which was known as the Shippensburg-Baltimore Road. Starting at Sarah Black's tavern in now Mummasburg about 6 miles northwest now Gettysburg, it passed through Peter Lintelís town before crossing the province line. In 1809, the Gettysburg-Petersburg (Littlestown)  pike of ca 1807  was proposed and granted [to]  continue westward from the Gettysburg square,and connect that town with Cashtown and Chambersburg. The Littlestown (Petersburg)-Gettysburg Turnpike....made Littlestown an important stop for those who drove from Pittsburgh to Baltimore.  It was the last stop before entering Maryland.  Littlestown was thus a  cross-roads town with the Baltimore-Pittsburgh route crossing the Monacacy Road from Frederick to Wrightsville and the Susquehanna River.  "¹⁴