Letter of Transmittal.        xi

    1668[/69] “. This second part runs to April 13, 1672, and fills pages 399 to
    446 of the old liber, thus overlapping in point of time the period covered by
    the earlier portion of the first part. It is unfortunate that the entire contents
    of Liber C. D. cannot be printed in this volume, but for lack of space, it has
    been found necessary to omit that portion of part one for the years 168o to
    1684, which fills pages 261 to 399 of the old liber. The copy of Liber C. D.
    made in 1729, has marginal references to the pagination of the original liber
    from which the copy was made, and the transcriber has also adopted a new run-
    ning pagination for his own copy. In this printed volume both paginations are
    given, the original folio numbers, printed in parentheses, are indicated by the
    abbreviation “fol.”, followed by the old folio page number; and the pages of
    the copy of 1729 by the abbreviation “p.” followed by the copyist's page
    number, without parentheses.
      The other old liber from which this volume is in part taken is known as
    Chancery Liber P. C., and is a volume of 884 pages of which only the first 171
    pages are printed here. The designating initials are of course those of Philip
    Calvert, Chancellor from 166i to 1682. Although begun in 1671 when Philip
    Calvert was Chancellor and Robert Ridgely, Register, this liber runs down to
    the year 1712, with a break of about six years in the late eighties, and after
    1682 covers the incumbancy of several later chancellors. We are concerned
    here, however, only with the records in it extending from 1671 to 1679. The
    handwriting found in Liber P. C., varies with the several registers, or clerks,
    who have made the entries. Some of this writing, a mixture of late eighteenth
    century and old court hand, is very difficult to decipher.
      It will be seen that libers C. D. and P. C. overlap in time for the period
    from 1671 to 1684. A study of the contents of these two old volumes fails
    to disclose clearly what system, if any, was used by the registers in selecting
    the entries recorded in each, except that it may be said in general that Liber
    P. C. was used principally as a record of court sessions and of the judicial
    activities of the Court of Chancery, as well as for recording cases and decrees,
    while Liber C. D., after 1671, was used principally to record writs, appoint-
    ments to office, commissions, inquisitions, pardons, proclamations and similar
    instruments, not strictly judicial, issued under the Great Seal, of which the
    Chancellor was the Keeper, although a few of the earlier court sessions and
    cases are recorded in Liber C. D.
      The Chancery in Maryland as in England had two aspects, the “ordinary”
    functions of the Chancellor as Keeper of the Great Seal for the sealing of
    various legal and extra-legal papers, and the Court of Chancery in its strictly
    judicial aspect. Although for nearly a century after the settlement the Court
    was a body composed of a Chief Judge in Equity with associate judges, of