Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 375

expresses an earnest Desire that all the Mannours & particu-
larly that of Ann Arundel should be immediately sold at all
Events I communicated such your Ldp's Desire to the other
Commissioners who thereupon agreed that it should be again
advertized for Sale but not be sold before June so that there
might be time for us to receive an answer to our joint Letter
& the Proposition that accompanied it & as the Market for
Tobacco will then begin here the Tenants or other Planters
who may choose to purchase will be able to command more
ready Money or Bills of Exchange than they could do earlier
in the year. We shall likewise advertise the other Mannours
successively for Sale so that they may be put up immediately
afterwards & for that purpose the Surveyors are now running
out & making distinct Platts of each & of the several Tene-
ments without which we should not know how to set them up
in proper Lotts & at a Price proportionable to their Value, the
Agent being unable to give us any satisfactory Information
about them or indeed to furnish us with a Correct Rent Roll
of the Tenants on several of them. Col^o Lloyd having come
hither the 20^th of last Month according to Appointment We
have been employed ever since in examining his several
Accounts but were not able to go thro them so as to make a
Report thereon at this time but having made a rough Esti-
mate of the Money in his hands we required him to remit the
same to your Ldp by this Ship of M^r Jordans which is about
to sail from Virginia for which purpose he is returned home
but on the 9^th Inst is to attend here again in order that we
may proceed & if possible put a finishing hand to this Busi-
ness. That your Ldp has suffered Loss by Col^o Lloyds
Dilitoriness or by his Inability to attend to & manage properly
the multifarious Business of the Agents Office is I believe
apparent to himself as well as to the Commissioners, & I
suppose he thought himself that he had too many Offices when
about five or six years ago he applied to M^r Calvert for Leave
to resign that of Keeper of the Western Shore Rent Roll but
as I presume the other Commissioners & I shall soon join in
a Report to your Ldp & submit to your Consideration a Plan
for the future Guidance of the Agent I forbear troubling your
Ldp with my Sentiments of the past or my opinion about the
future Management of your Ldp's Revenue. It having been
found by Experience that the Quit Rents of the Counties
which have been farmed to the Sheriffs agreeable to M^r
Calverts Scheme & your Ldps Instruction have not been so
regularly collected & by them paid the Agent as the Rents
which other Persons farmed & the Commissioners being con-
vinced that the Sheriffs are not so likely to collect the Rents
punctually as Persons who having not the Duties of any

Letter Bk. IV