Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 315

Rest are on their march to take up their Winter Quarters
either in the Forts on the Frontiers of these Colonies or
among the Inhabitants.

[Sharpe to Baltimore.]

Annapolis the 16^th Decem^r 1758.
My Ld
M^r Calvert Your Ldps Secretary having intimated to me
some time ago that it had been reported by some Persons in
England who were supposed to have Correspondents here
that Roman Catholicks are too much Countenanced in Your
Ldps Province, that in Consequence thereof their Number
increases & that many of them have lately behaved in such a

manner as to give His Majesty's Protestant Subjects in the
Province great Offence & Uneasiness, I think it my Duty &
injustice to myself. I can do no less than to assure Your Ldp
that since I have had the honour to bear Your Commission
Nothing has been farther from my Inclination than to counte-
nance or give Encouragement to persons of that Persuasion
nor has there to my knowledge been any given them by
any Persons in Authority under me, but on the Contrary
extraordinary Burthens have been lately laid on them particu-
larly by an Act of Assembly that was made in May 1756
whereby all Landholders of the Romish Faith are obliged to
pay by Way of Land Tax twice as much as the Rest of Your
Ldps Tenants who are Protestants. It might perhaps be
unknown if not to the Authors at least to some of the Propa-
gators of the abovementioned Report that the People who
first settled in this Province were for the most part Roman
Catholicks & that altho every other Sect was tolerated a
Majority of the Inhabitants continued Papists till the Revo-
lution soon after which Event An Act was made here
for the Support of a Clergyman of the Church of England
in every Parish which is still in force & the Papists as well
as Protestants are thereby obliged to pay annually very con-
siderable Sums for that purpose. Other Acts of Assembly
were made afterwards in the Reign of Her Majesty Queen
Ann subjecting all Popish Priests that should be discovered
here to all the Penalties to which such Priests would be lyable
in England but Her Majesty was pleased to disapprove
thereof & to order that no Popish Bishop Priest or Jesuit
should be prosecuted or indicted for exercising his Function
in any private Family within this Province. But notwith-
standing Her Majesty thought fit to allow the Papists in
Maryland the free Exercise of their Religion they were not
permitted to sit in either House of Assembly, to Vote at the