ROOMS OF THE MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

BALTIMORE, October 13, 1884.
To the Maryland Historical Society :

GENTLEMEN:

The Committee on the State Archives take pleasure in submitting
herewith the second volume of the Archives, embracing the Assembly
Proceedings and Laws from 1666 to 1676.

Since the publication of the Calendar in the former report the com-
mittee have secured several important additions to the Archives. From
Spencer C. Jones, Esq., Clerk of the Court of Appeals of Maryland,
they have received a volume of Laws known as Liber W. H. 1640-1688.
This book, which is fully described on a subsequent page of this report,
supplies the Laws passed at the Sessions of 1678, 1681, 1682, 1683,
1684,1686, and 1688, which are not elsewhere obtainable, as far as is now
known, the journals and Bacon's Laws giving the titles only. The Laws
in the volume earlier than 1678, they had obtained from other sources.
Mr. W. Noel Sainsbury has continued to send us transcripts of papers
from the Public Record Office and from the Journals of the House of
Lords. He has likewise brought to our notice a Council book in the
Record Office covering the dates from April, 1680 to April, 1689, thus
partly supplying the large gap from 1674 to 1692 in that department of
our Archives. He describes the volume, now known as Colonial Entry
Book No. 54, though its original liber letter was B, on the last leaf of
which is the following entry:

Sept. 8th 1686 Recd of the Honble Col. Wm Digges
these records belonging to the Council as follow vizt

H. H. Counsell Booke Anno 1656

H. Counsell Booke Anno 1669/70

R R & R R R Counsell Booke 1671 & 1683

C. B. Counsell Booke Anno 1679

A Counsell Booke Anno. 1677

C B Counsell Booke Anno. 1683

B State Counsell Booke (viz: this Booke)
Anno 1686.

The above as aforesaid received

p Jam: Heath Cl Consil

Two of the above books are still in existence. H. H. 1656-1669 has
been in the custody of this Society since 1847, and is described on p. xx
of the Calendar. The last book on the list, B, is the one to which Mr.