northwestern area was designated in 1838 as the "Western District" or "Howard District" of Arundel and in 1851 was officially separated to form Howard County. Before 1674, Baltimore County court sessions were held in private residences, according to sketchy documentary evidence. In 1674, the General Assembly passed "An Act for erecting a Court-house and Prison in each County within this Province". The site of the courthouse, jail and county seat for Baltimore County was evidently "Old Baltimore" near the Bush River on land that in 1773 became part of Harford County. The exact location of Old Baltimore was lost. It was certain that the location was somewhere on the site of the present-day Aberdeen Proving Grounds (APG), a U.S. Army weapons testing facility. APG's Cultural Resource Management Program attempted to find Old Baltimore, contracting with R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates (Goodwin). Goodwin first performed historical and archival work and coordinated with existing landscape features to locate the site of Old Baltimore. APG's Explosive Ordnance Disposal of Army personnel defused any unexploded ordnance. In 1997–1998. Goodwin dug 420 test pits, uncovering artifacts including a King Charles II farthing coin, and French and English gun flints. An unearthed brick foundation proved to be the remains of the tavern owned by colonist James Phillips. Another prominent landholder in Old Baltimore was William Osbourne, who operated the ferry across the Bush River. In his article "Migrations of Baltimore Town", Reverend George Armistead Leakin related a letter he had received from Dr. George I. Hays. In that letter, Dr. Hays related an account of a raid by the Susquehannocks who took William Osbourne's oldest son. Osbourne was unsuccessful in an attempt to rescue the boy. The boy was never seen by Osbourne again. In 1683, the Maryland General Assembly passed "An Act for Advancement of Trade" to "establish towns, ports, and places of trade, within the province." One of the towns established by the act was "on Bush River, on Town Land, near the Court-House". The courthouse on the Bush River referenced in the 1683 Act was in all likelihood the one created by the 1674 Act. "Old Baltimore" was in existence as early as 1674, but no documents describe what may have preceded it. By 1695, the "Old Baltimore" courthouse had evidently been abandoned. County justices put the site up for sale. Apparently a new courthouse at "Simm's Choice" on the Baltimore County side