508 Assembly Proceedings, May 1-June 4, 1744.

L. H. J.

May 4

Friday Morning, May 4. 1744
The House met according to Adjournment, &c.
M^r Speaker communicated to the House the following Letter, viz.
To the Honourable Col. Edward Sprigg, Speaker of the House of
Delegates of the Province of Maryland.
Sir,
Inclosed is a true Copy of a Letter, which was on the 26^th Day of
March last, delivered to his Excellency, Thomas Bladen Esq^r our
present Governor of this province, from me, Relating to his Excel-
lency's Building an House for the Governor of this province, for the
time being, on my Land, without having purchased my Right to any
part thereof, as by the Inclosed Copy will appear; and as his Excel-
lency may probably in that Affair, be deemed but as an Agent for the
Country, who may perhaps be esteemed as principals; and, as for
that Reason it may be Apprehended, the Notice given to his Excel-
lency, by the Original Letter, whereof the Inclosed is a Copy, is not
sufficient for the purposes for which it was intended, as not being
given to the party immediately concerned; I must therefore beg
leave to take this my ffirst opportunity since the last meeting of the
Assembly (which was in the year 1742) to acquaint the Honourable
the House of Delegates now in General Assembly convened, that
his Excellency is now building an House for the Governor of this
Province, for the time being, on a parcell of Land belonging to me,
by virtue of a grant thereof from the present Lord Proprietary to my
Late ffather, and Thomas Larkin Deceased, in the inclosed Letter
mentioned; and upon a Division of which Tract by the Grantees,
a Moiety thereof was allotted to my said late ffather, under whom
I claim that Moiety, and on part of which his Excellency is now
building the aforementioned House, without having purchased my
Right to any part of it; and altho' that patent has, by a Decree of the
Court of Chancery here, at the suit of the Lord Proprietary, been
order'd and Decreed to be vacated and annulled; yet, from that
Decree, there is an appeal depending at my Suit, in Order to Reverse
it; and I am determined to Carry on the same, not only in one Court
of Appeals here but in Case the Decree in Chancery be there affirmed,
to Carry the same Home for a final sentence, before his Majesty in
Council: And if I so prevail, as to Reverse that Decree in Chan-
cery, I shall not only claim (as I now do) the Benefit of that Grant,
as to my Moiety of the Land therein described, but shall also Claim
as mine, as well the aforesaid House, which is now Building, as any
other Buildings or Improvements, which shall be made on any part
of my Moyety of that Tract of Land, by the said patent granted as
aforesaid.
And I must now, Sir, beg leave to disavow my having any other
intention, or design, in troubling you with those papers (which be