Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 473

his Tryal, as Principal in the Rape, with the Two Women as
Accessarys before the fact, Before Baron Smyth at Kingston
assizes, when they were all Three Acquitted. There is a
Second Indictment for a Supposed Conspiracy in seducing
the Woman, which remains to be Tryed at a future Assizes,
or before the Kings Bench, but that is for a Misdemeanor
only, and we likewise talk in our turn of Indictments for Per-
jury Conspiracy &c. & of ultimately Consigning the Lady to
your Excellency, If found worth while, on account of the
object and expence, for as to the Iniquity & Wickedness of the
whole Business (Considered in a Criminal Light) there never
was a stronger Case. But the serious part of the business is
at an end, & I most heartily Congratulate your Excellency
and the whole Province upon it ; His Lordship through the
whole Business Demeaned himself with the greatest fortitude
& firmness, and, as a Specimen, you will Permit me to Inclose
you a Copy of his Manly Address to the Court, when called
upon to make his Defence.
You will easily perceive & excuse the necessary Interrup-
tion given by this unlucky Affair to our Correspondence; for
half the time his Lordship was out of reach to favor me with
his Instructions, & the other half was fully Engaged in Col-
lecting Materials for Vindicating his Innocence ; The uncer-
tainty too of the Event, (in a Prosecution Supported by Fanati-
cism, Associations, Subscriptions, and every Diabolical Engine
of Destruction, and in a Country equally governed by Faction
& Mob, where being a Lord is cause Sufficient with the People
& the sovereignty of his possessions with Government & his
Peers, to Devote him to ruin,) was alone a Sufficient Consid-
eration to Stay my Pen, & to induce me, scarce knowing what
to Write, to Prefer silence for a time.
I shall now Address myself to yo^r Excellencys sev" favors,
hitherto unnoticed, in their different order.
His Lordship desires me to Acknowledge the Receipt of
the Firsts of 32 setts of Bills of Exchange for £1363 18 51/2
in part of the first Paym^t for Parcels of Ann Arundel Manor,
& I am sorry to find so Indifferent an Account of the progress
in the Sales of the other Manors.
Mess" Mason & Dixon are not yet arrived tho' daily
expected according to yo^r Letter of 29 October.
M^r Benjⁿ Tasker has given his Lordship very material Infor-
mation as to Talbot Manor, by which I find his right arises
under different forfeitures in 1684 & 1714 & that ever since
his memory the Ten^ts have paid their rents to the Lord Pro-
prietary, & the Orig^ll Inquest is Recorded in the Secretarys
Office. The Devisees indeed, as you know deny the latter
forfeiture upon the footing of Identity, Insisting that the