Beside Bush River stood the county seat of Baltimore County, then a largely wilderness area that included what is now Harford County. By 1676 a courthouse had been built. About ¼ mile south is the surviving cemetery of the Phillips family, where Martha Paca Phillips, sister of William Paca, signer of the Declaration of Independence, is buried. In 1683 the Maryland Assembly made this village a port of entry for transatlantic vessels. By 1693 the court had moved west to "Simm's Choice" on Gunpowder River, and it relocated again in 1712 at what is now Joppatowne. Present Baltimore City on the Patapsco was founded in 1729.