Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 259

years having all contributed to make me entertain a sincere
Friendship & the highest Regard for him Your Ldp will natu-
rally suppose that I was not a little affected at the melancholy
Account of his Death which I received a few Days ago in the
Letter with which Your Ldp did me the honour to favour me
the 8^th of Nov^r last, a Letter which on Account of that Intelli-
gence was indeed very unwelcome but in other respects such
a one as demands my most grateful Acknowledgments of
which therefore I beg Your Ldp's Acceptance With Your
Ldps I have received a Letter also from M^r Hamersley advis-
ing me of Your Ldps having upon the Demise of M^r Calvert
favoured him so far as to appoint him Secretary of Maryland
& in the Letter was inclosed your Ldp's Commission to that
purport which I shall have recorded agreeable to M^r
Hamersley's Desire: & will signify to the Commissary Gen-
eral as well as to Your Ldp's Agent & Judges of the Land
Office that they are for the future to make the same Annual
Remittance to him as they did to his Predecessor. At the
time Your Ldp & M^r Hamersley's Letters were brought
hither from the Post from N York I happened to be in S^t
Mary's County & on my Return home was told that M^r Dulany
had reported he was superseded & should no longer act as
Secretary. As M^r Hamersley had in his Letter signified to
me that in Obedience to Your Ldp's Directions he should
continue M^r Dulany D Secretary & had transmitted a Com-
mission to him impowering him to act in that Capacity I was
Your Ldp will suppose very much surprized at hearing such a
Report but upon my speaking to M^r Dulany about it I found
that it was not without foundation for he told me that he
could not act under the Commission or Power of Attorney
(as he called it) that M^r Hamersley had sent him, by which it
seems he is impowered or directed to transact the Business in
M^r Hamersley's Name & to receive the Fees for his use,
whereas those who have hitherto acted as D Secretaries
within the Province have always transacted the Business in
their own Names & been impowered to receive the Fees to
their own Use, the Obligation they entered into for paying
the Secretary in England a certain Sum annually out of the
Fees having been a matter of a private Nature at least not
mentioned in their Commissions, at the same time he inti-
mated that altho the Person acting here as Secretary of the
Province might be stiled Deputy Secretary he had in fact
been always considered as principal, it being by several Acts
of Assembly directed that before the Person who may be
appointed Secretary could do any Act or be capable of exe-
cuting the Office he should take certain Oaths before One of
the Provincial Justices & give Bond here for the faithful Exe-

Letter Bk. IV