Preface.                                             ix

ernor being a liberal contributor, to defray the charge of the erection of
a school-house. Letters on the subject were addressed to their Majes-
ties, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and to the Bishop of London,
asking their approval, and a Supplicatory Act petitioning the sovereigns
to sanction the establishment was passed at this session, but the text is
not in our records.

It is to be regretted that the Journal of the Lower House of this
important session, seems to have been lost.

At the session of May, 1695, the name of Anne Arundel Town was
changed to Annapolis, in honor of the Princess Anne, heiress presump-
tive to the crown, the port of Oxford was named William Stadt in com-
pliment to the King, and Prince George's county was erected and
named after Prince George of Denmark. In the same year work was
begun on the new State-house at Annapolis, Casparus Augustine Herr-
man, son of the patriarch of Bohemia Manor, taking the contract.

At the October session an Act was passed imposing a duty on furs
exported, the. proceeds to be applied for the maintenance of a free
school or schools.

At the session of July, 1696, an Act was passed establishing at Anne
Arundel Town, a free school, to be called King William's School, of
which the Archbishop of Canterbury was to be Chancellor, and the con-
trol of which was to be vested in a Board of Trustees. For its support
a sum of £120 per annum was allotted, and when the funds in the hands
of the trustees should exceed this amount they were to take steps
toward the erection of another at Oxford, Talbot Co. They also passed
an Act for establishing the Church of England in the Province, repeal-
ing the Acts of 1692 and 1695, and laying a tax of 40 1b. of tobacco per
poll on every taxable for the support of the ministry.

It is perhaps worth noting that at this session Dinah (or Diana) Nut-
head applied for and apparently received, a license to print. This must
have been the public printing, though not explicitly so stated. She was
probably the widow of William Nuthead, who did the public printing
1686-1693. At the next session William Bladen was appointed public
printer.

The first matter of importance that occupied the attention of the next
session was the case of the notorious John Coode. This person, an
apostate clergyman of flagitious life and conversation had been elected
a burgess. He had been one of the leading spirits in the conspiracy
that overthrew the Proprietary government, and had acquired such
influence with the people that in spite of his notorious depravity, and in