xl Introduction.

of General Forbes he called out the Frederick County militia to garrison Fort
Frederick and Fort Cumberland, several hundred men readily marched and
served under his command at these posts for several months (Md. Hist. Mag.,
1938, xxxiii, 231-232, 238-239).

BILLETTING OF BRITISH TROOPS ON THE INHABITANTS

The quartering of troops on the inhabitants is always a grievance to the
householders who are the victims. In Maryland, whenever possible, inns and
ordinaries and not private houses, had been made use of when the militia was
called out into service. That private houses, however, were occasionally used,
is indicated by the petition of John Kirkpatrick, presented at the April-May,
1757, session, requesting that he be reimbursed for damage done to his house,
apparently when the militia of Cecil County was called out for service on the
frontier (pp. 6, 9, 58). But the quartering of local militia for a short time
was a minor grievance in comparison with what now threatened in the billeting
of British regulars over the winter.

It will be recalled that at the preceding session the Lower House had prom-
ised the Governor that at the session following it would prepare a bill making
the necessary provisions for furnishing quarters for the British soldiers who
it was expected would winter in the Province (pp. 67-68). Under date of
September 30, the Lower House addressed the Governor asking him how many
troops it was proposed to quarter in the Province and at what places (p. 205),
and in reply Sharpe said that he could not inform them as to the exact number,
but that Sir John St. Clair, deputy-quartermaster-general in America under
Loudoun, thought that the latter would order two regiments to Maryland for
winter quarters (p. 212). The Governor then submitted a tentative list show-
ing how the twenty companies might be distributed among the thirteen
towns he mentioned, and enquired whether the house felt they might be so
allotted (p. 212). On October 5, the Lower House in an address to the Gover-
nor requested him to tell His Lordship it is apprehended that not more than
one regiment could be accommodated as " there are few Towns that have
more than One or Two Inns or Public Houses in them " showing its attitude
toward billeting in private homes (p. 219). Provision for the troops seems to
have been provided for in the Service bill which failed of passage because of
disagreement between the two houses as to its terms. On November 19, the
Lower House refused by a vote of 28 to 21 to consider a petition of the Cor-
poration of Annapolis to make provision by special ordinance for the troops
that were about to arrive there (pp. 279, 299-300). On November 24, both
houses by ordinance, the Lower House by a vote of 18 to 13, agreed to allow
£200 of the unexpended part of a grant of £3,000 previously made for recruit-
ing men for the King's Royal American Regiment, to be used for this purpose
(pp. 171, 285-286). Again on December 2, the Lower House, by a vote of
23 to 13, rejected a petition of the Corporation of Annapolis to provide fur-
ther for the troops now billeted there (pp. 177, 299-300), and by the same vote
refused to allow £2,000 remaining unspent from an appropriation for Indian
scalps, to be used for providing winter quarters for British troops billeted in
the Province (pp. 299-300).