PREFACE.

In February, 1883, the Publication Committee chose William Hand Browne,
M. D., as editor of the new series to be entitled the Maryland Archives, in
which should be included the records of the Province and of the State, during
its earlier years. Scholars know how valuable was the service which Dr.
Browne rendered as editor of the thirty-one volumes which appeared during
an editorship lasting to the end of his life. His minute and encyclopaedic
knowledge of Maryland history, his careful and methodical manner of work,
did much toward rescuing from obscurity the events which occurred during
the early years of Maryland history and toward preserving the records of
those early years from any risk of destruction. When he died in 1912, the
Society naturally chose as his successor, that ripe and assiduous scholar in the
field of Maryland Provincial History, Clayton C. Hall, A. M., who was then
Chairman of the Publication Committee, and who had served upon that
Committee since 1890. We hoped that his tenure of that office might be a
long one, and the editorship of the three volumes which appeared under his
auspices showed how wisely he had been chosen to prepare them.

It was the privilege of the present editor to meet Dr. Browne in the autumn
of 1888, and to become a member of his class in the Scottish Poets at the
Johns Hopkins University. He was not only my teacher, but also he became
my friend, and during the years from 1897 to his death he conferred often
concerning problems of editorship with me as a member of the Publication
Committee. My friendship with his successor, Mr. Hall, was an hereditary
one, for it was due to his initiative and investigations that my father, Lewis H.
Steiner, M. D., then State Senator from Frederick County, became interested
in and carried through the Legislature the amendment of the State Seal and
the return to the Provincial one. During Mr. Hall's editorship we were
accustomed to interchange opinions on the proper course to be taken, when-
ever any question arose which he did not wish to decide without conference.
In the early days of May, 1916, at Mr. Hall's request, I went to see him at
his country home, and was then told by him that his ill health had caused him
to decide that he would resign the editorship of the Archives, and that if I
would accept the position he would be glad to make the suggestion in his
letter of resignation that I be chosen his successor. Closely following this
interview, Mr. Hall's health failed rapidly and he died before the close of the
month.