The Lower House. 145

pious Design that we are engaged in and therefore we make
humble Application that this laudable Work may be taken
into Consideration and such Means used as the Honble As-
sembly shall think proper to enlarge the Funds for the Pro-
motion of Education and Learning. And whereas we meet
with great Difficulty from the great Distance that the several
Members of our Corporation live from one another and that
it is almost impracticable for us to meet and consult so oft as
the Nature of our Affairs would require we humbly submit to
the Honble Assembly whether it may not be necessary by a
new Law to enable any five or more of us to transact our
Affairs without lying under a Necessity of having a Majority
of the Members present. Further we represent to the Honble
Assembly that we find in one of the Journals of the House of
Delegates 6th July 1696 recited that Mr Anthony Workman
came before the House and gave a hundred and fifty Pounds
Sterling to the building of a House upon a Lot which his
Excellency had already given together with ten Pounds
Sterling towards building the said House which is to be
enjoyed by the said Anthony Workman during his natural
Life and remain over to the Use of Free Schools. Also the
said Mr Workman promised to leave all the Improvements
upon the said Lot in good and Sufficient Repair. And in the
Journal of the House of Delegates held in May 1696 folio 38
& 39 the said Workman enters this House and Says there is
fifty Pounds in his Hands for finishing the House and prays
he may keep Ordinary therein License free which was granted.
Likewise in an Act of Assembly for keeping good Rules and
Orders in the Port of Annapolis made in July 1696 it is thus
contained. And be it further Enacted by the Authority afore-

L. H. J.

said that all those Deeds Obligations Writings and Evidences
made by and between his Excellency Francis Nicholson Esqr
Captain General and Governor in Chief of this Province of
the one Part and Anthony Workman of Kent Island in the
County of Talbot of the other and William Freeman Brick-
layer of Philadelphia in Pensylvania of the other Part con-
cerning a Lot of Land in the said Town and building an
House thereon to the Use of the said Anthony Workman
during his natural Life and after his Decease to the Use of
the Free School of this Town forever bearing Date the 8th Day
of June Anno Dom. 1696 and ordered to be recorded in the
Journal of the Governor and Council and the House of
Burgesses of this General Assembly be of absolute and full
Force and available in Law to the uses therein expressed
according to the true Intent and Meaning thereof any Defect
in Form or Want of Form in the same notwithstanding.
But forasmuch as the said Deeds Obligations and Writings

p. 529