538 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

Letter Bk V.

properly conferr'd ; & tho in your Letter of the 20^th of July 1 767
(where you mentioned M^r W Dulany as the only Person
recommended to succeed the late Commissary Gen^l then lan-
guishing) you express't some Doubt about his being suffi-
ciently versed in the Ecclesiastical & Civil Law to discharge
the Duties of the Office, I am satisfied no Body here who
knows him thinks him deficient in point of Abilities whatever
Objections of a different Sort may have been started against
his holding such principal Office in the Government. Before
I proceed to vindicate my Conduct in appointing M^r Allen
His Ldp's Agent Permit me to recapitulate what has pass't
between us with respect to that Gentleman since it was first
intimated to me that His Ldp had a View of providing for
him. In your Letter dated the 26 of Dec^r 1765 you said
" There is a very deserving Clergyman a Fellow of a College
at Oxford of a good tho numerous Family, an intimate
Acquaintance of His Ldp to whom he would wish to give
some Preferment in Maryland, you will therefore please to
look out & give His Ldp Notice of the first that offers with
the Circumstances & Value." In a Letter His Ldp did me
the honour to write to me the 2^d of August 1766 he thus
express't himself "I desire that you will be pleased to observe
what has been mentioned to you in relation to a Living for a
particular Friend of mine here in England M^r Allen of
Oxford. I propose he shall have one of the best & he will
send a Deputy from hence for him & in this for many Reasons
I desire your Assistance in compleating." On my Receipt of
His Ldp's Letter I promised in my answer dated the 7^th of
Decem^r 1766 to give him the earliest Notice when any Living
of considerable Value should become vacant, taking the
liberty at the same time to intimate to His Ldp that the
bestowing a Living here on a Clergyman resident in England
leaving it to him to send a Curate to officiate in his stead was
a new Measure & might be deemed contrary to the Spirit of
the Acts of Assembly that provide for the Clergymens Main-
tenance. Very soon afterwards M^r Allen arrived in the Prov-
ince bringing me from His Ldp the following Letter dated
the 22^d of Sept^r 1766 "The Bearer hereof is M^r Allen the
Oxford Gentleman I sometime since mentioned to you & as
from the great Desire he has of Visiting America he has
resigned a good Appointment I would not have him a Loser
by the Exchange & as you say there are Livings vacant worth
£150 stg each should be glad M^r Allen might hold two of
those Livings till one of the best become vacant for which he
may think it worth while to make a Change & to which I
desire you would present him." The answer I returned His
Ldp (at the same time writing to you to the same Effect) was