The First Century of the Court of Chancery.      lix

      Colonel Richard Tilghman (1672-1738) of the “Hermitage “, Queen
    Anne's County, succeeded Holland in 1721. Tilghman had held numerous
    important offices under the Provincial government but probably was not a lawyer
    by profession. His commission by the Proprietary was dated November 6, 1721,
    and was issued about the time Charles Calvert, a relative of the Proprietary,
    arrived in Maryland as Governor. The first record of Tilghman's presiding in
    court was, February 12, 1721/2, and he appears thereafter as Chancellor until
    early in 1725, when under date of February 16, 1724/5, in a new Chancery
    record book (I. R. No. I.), these rather amusing entries appear on the title
    page “The Following Letter is recorded at the Request of the Honourable
    Richard Tilghman, Esq. viz__Dr Sr As it is the Duty of Every man that has a
    Family to provide for these the best measure he can I'm persuaded you cannot
    take it amiss that after having given the Profits of the seales out of my own
    pocketts ever since my Arrival I now take them to myself (etc) * * * yr
    Obliged
                                         Humble Servant
                                             Cha' Calvert

      With the assumption of the Chancellorship by Governor Charles Calvert in
    1725, and which he held until 1727, we find during the remaining colonial
    period, and until the adoption of the first State constitution in 1776, that all the
    succeeding governors held the office of Chancellor. Benedict Leonard Calvert,
    brother of Charles the fifth Lord, was commissioned Governor and Chancellor
    in 1727. He remained in Maryland until 1731 when on account of ill-health he
    embarked for England, dying of consumption on the voyage home.
      This résumé of the Chancellery of Maryland covers the first century following
    the granting of the charter in 1632. The records, both printed and in manu-
    script, from which these notes have been taken, are practically unindexed and
    have required a page by page search. There are many gaps, especially during
    the Parliamentary disturbances, and again in the 1690-1730 period, in the records
    of the Council, which, if in existence, would doubtless throw additional light
    upon the development of the court of the Chancellor during these periods. By
    1730 its functions and scope had assumed the form which it continued to have
    down to the Revolution, and with a few unimportant changes, until it was
    abolished in 1854 by the Constitution of 1851. While no detailed sketch of the
    Court of Chancery and of the Chancellor during its first century has hitherto
    appeared in print, David M. Newbold, Jr. in his Notes on the Introduction of
    Equity Jurisdiction into Maryland 1634-1720, Baltimore, 1906, touches upon
    some of the aspects of its development and discusses a few early equity cases
    recorded in the published proceedings of the Provincial Court. The story of the
    last hundred and twenty years of its total life of two hundred and twenty years,
    may be learned from a study of the manuscript books and records in Annapolis
    recording its proceedings, from the printed reports of Chancellor Theoderick
    Bland and other later chancellors, and from Maryland law reports covering
    this later period.