Letter of Transmittal. xiii

William Brogden. Special irritation was felt because Protestants marrying
Catholics were obliged to promise that the children would be brought up as
Catholics. Irresponsible charges brought in some of the depositions require no
comment, but some of the statements are of interest in showing to what extent
certain prominent Southern Maryland families were divided in their religious
affiliations, and how frequently marriages between Protestants and Catholics
occurred. It is also interesting that the clergy of the Established Church in
their complaint not only showed their hostility to the Catholics, but were also
very resentful of public preaching by dissenting Protestants who had not taken
the oaths to the government. When the report was later brought before the
Lower House for adoption it was rejected by the close vote of 21 to 19.
Abraham Barnes, Philip Key, Richard Harrison, Matthew Tilghman, Benjamin
Pearce, Michael Earle, James Hollyday, William Hopper, and the two Dulanys,
Daniel Dulany, the younger, and his brother, Walter, all outstanding men in
the Lower House and most of them of the Proprietary party, voted against the
adoption of the report. It is interesting that Dr. Charles Carroll (the father of
Charles Carroll, the Barrister, and related to the family of Charles Carroll of
Carrollton) who seems to have been a convert from Catholicism, was the chair-
man of the committee which brought in the report and took an active part
in attempting to secure its adoption.

The last few days of the session were occupied with a dispute resulting in
the interchange of several messages between the two houses over the adoption
of the Journal of Accounts in which the Upper House had included the al-
lowance of certain back fees to the late governor which the Lower House still
refused to grant.

Though Sharpe urgently requested that " the Act for Arms and Ammuni-
tion " be immediately revived in view of the French and Indian threat, the
Lower House declared they did not consider the danger so immediate that they
felt justified in imposing now any additional tax on the people. The house
reminded the Governor that in 1704, when the government was under the
Crown, a tax of twelve pence per hogshead was imposed upon all tobacco ex-
ported, of which, under an order from Queen Anne, threepence was to be
applied to the purchase of arms; but that now under the Proprietary govern-
ment the entire twelve pence was taken by his Lordship, and that the Lower
House felt that threepence per hogshead from the duty on tobacco should
be used to defray military expenses, rather than that new taxes for this pur-
pose be imposed. Near the close of the session the Lower House requested
Sharpe to instruct the Attorney-General (Henry Darnall) to take steps to
recover from the several sheriffs a sum amounting to f. 1227-19-1 which
had been collected by them from licenses for ordinaries but had not yet been