Letter of Transmittal. xxix

Two private acts were passed, one to entail lands in Prince George's County
on the female heirs of Leonard Hollyday, deceased, and the other to rectify
certain errors in a defective deed to a town lot in Annapolis from Thomas
Larkin to John Jordan made in 1728, both parties being now deceased. The
Assembly after a long session of three months was prorogued by the Governor
on May 22d, until the first Monday in January 1757, although it was to be
brought together again on September 14, 1756, some months before the date
to which it was prorogued.

Sharpe called the Assembly together on September 14, 1756, because of the
receipt of letters from Henry Fox, the Secretary of State of the King, and
from the Earl of Loudoun, the new commander-in-chief of the British forces
in America. Although active warfare between the English and the French in
North America had been carried on for some two years, war had not been
formally declared by England until May 27, 1756, and the Proclamation to this
effect was not published in Annapolis until August nth. After the fall of
Oswego the French and their Indian allies became more aggressive in their
attacks upon the Maryland frontier and the settlers fled eastward in large num-
bers. Many of these settlers were Germans and Sharpe expressed in no un-
certain terms his contempt for their failure to make the least attempt to defend
themselves. It became necessary to send the militia from the eastern counties
to defend the frontier (Archiv. Md., vi, 481-4; 490-2). In his opening speech
the Governor announced that Fox had requested that the Assembly make pro-
vision to compensate the masters of indentured servants who might wish to
enlist in the army for their unexpired terms of service, that every assistance
be given to forward enlistment in the Royal American Regiment, that funds
raised by the Province for defensive purposes be made available for use by the
commander-in-chief as he might direct, and that the embargo be tightened
on the export of provisions and arms to prevent these getting into the hands of
the French. Loudoun's letters to Sharpe from New York and Albany, dated re-
spectively July 25th and August 20th, announced the further advance of the
French in that region, that Oswego had fallen with the destruction of the
British naval power on the lakes, and that Maryland now must defend its own
frontier as he could do no more than hold the enemy in the North. He further
urged that every effort be made to secure recruits for the four battalions of
the Royal American Regiment for which the King was sending officers, and
added that he would advance the money required for recruiting until the
Province itself had an opportunity to make the necessary appropriation.

The Lower House organized by adopting the rules of the last session and
appointing the same officers and committees that had served at that session,
except that the Rev. Clement Brooke, curate of St. Anne's, Annapolis, instead