Early Maryland County Courts. xliii

      records it is not stated in which capacity an attorney was acting. In the Pro
      vincial Court, beginning in the sixties, are to be found a few “sworn attorneys
      of the court “, men trained in their profession, who were formally admitted to
      practice, and enrolled as such in the court records. Not a single instance has
      been found in the minutes of these four county courts of such a formal gen
      eral admission to practice, although there can be no question that any one who
      had been entered as an attorney in the Provincial Court might also practice in
      any county court. Judge Carroll T. Bond, in the introduction to his Proceed
      ings of the Maryland Court of Appeals, 1695-1729, (pp. xxi-xxviii), in an
      excellent review of the lawyers practicing in Maryland in the seventeenth and
      eighteenth centuries, gives a short list of these who he feels, may be given a
      professional status. The editor of the Archives also has discussed some of the
      professional attorneys who practiced in the Provincial and chancery courts in
      a previous volume of the Archives (Arch. Md. ii, pp. xiv-xv). It is not to be
      supposed, however, that those who had a professional status in the provincial
      courts could make an adequate living by their law practice alone. All of them
      seem to have been planters as well, and many to have held public office. Those
      recognized as attorneys at law, and found practicing in the provincial courts
      during the third quarter of the seventeenth century, with one exception, prac
      ticed almost exclusively in these higher courts. These were William Calvert,
      Thomas Carleton, Robert Carvile, John Morecroft, Daniel Jenifer, Benjamin
      Rozier, and Matthew Ward. Of these only Ward appears to have practiced
      regularly in the county courts as shown by these records. Ward lived in Tal
      bot County, all the others in southern Maryland. William Calvert in his capacity
      of Attorney-General, however, occasionally appeared in the county courts.
        The Attorney-General of Maryland from the settlement in 1634 until 1657
      served both as the Secretary of the Province and as Attorney-General, Philip
      Calvert (1657) being the last to hold both offices. The following were the
      attorneys-general of Maryland from the settlement until the end of the period
      covered by these records: John Lewger, 1634-1647; Thomas Hatton, 1648-
      1654; William Durand, 1654-1656; Philip Calvert, 1657; Richard Smith, 1657-
      1661; Thomas Manning, 1661-1663; William Calvert, 1663-1670; Vincent
      Lowe, 1670-1676.
        Many men of prominence, and a few women, appear more or less frequently
      as attorneys, some women with such frequency as would indicate that they
      were looked upon as desirable agents in their several counties. In Kent
      County Henry Carline appears as attorney seven times, Joseph Wickes six times,
      Thomas Hynson, John Coursey, and John Edmundson five times each, and
      various other planters somewhat less frequently. Three women appear as attor
      neys in Kent: Mrs. Mary Bradnox three times, and Mrs. Katherine Seale and
      Mrs. Sarah Harris each once. Matthew Ward of Talbot County, whose name
      is to be found on the list of students of Gray's Inn, London, April 30, 1657,
      appears twenty times between 1671 and 1676, as attorney in Talbot and Kent
      counties. Michael Miller of Kent was attorney no less than fifty-five times from
      1670 to 1676, and George Oldfiefd ten times in the year 1676 alone. In Somer
      set County Randall Revell is entered as attorney seven times, Ambrose Dickson,