Somerset County.           xxxi

     Randall Revell (c. 1613-1687), who was one of the commissioners appointed
   in 166 1 for granting lands on the lower Eastern Shore some five years before
   Somerset County was established, is known to have been settled in Accomac,
   Virginia, as early as 1634. He was a burgess of Northampton County, Vir-
   ginia, in 1657-1658, and in July 1661, was appointed a justice of Northampton.
   It was only some four months after he was commissioned as a justice in Vir-
   ginia, that on November 6, 1661, we find him appointed by Governor Philip
   Calvert as one of the Maryland commissioners under Scarburgh to grant lands
   on the lower Eastern Shore; and on May 2, 1662, he was appointed to head
   the commission “to keep the peace” there. He had doubtless moved into
   Maryland from Virginia between these dates. He came under suspicion as
   involved in the Scarburgh defection in the winter of 1663, for on February 4,
   1662/3, he was recommissioned by the Governor, but a few weeks later, on
   February 20th, was turned out of office. There is a tradition that Revell mar-
   ried a sister of Scarburgh, which might account for his close political affiliation
   with the latter in his attempt to gain control for Virginia of the disputed
   territory on the Eastern Shore. Following the invasion of Scarburgh, of the
   Annemessex-Manokin neighborhood in October 1663, the Accomac, Virginia,
   court appointed Revell as one of the officers to establish the authority of
   Virginia in this region. Although he appears for many years after this as
   a prominent resident of Somerset, he held no office in this county until in
   1670 we find him serving as sheriff. He lived on his plantation, “Double
   Purchase “, on Revell's Neck, in Manokin River. He is said to have been a
   member of the Church of England. His will indicates that he died early in
   1687.
     Capt. John Elzey ( -1664), who served on the first commissions, appointed
   in 1661 and 1662 respectively for laying out lands and “to keep the peace”
   in the territory which was later Somerset County, came into Maryland from
   Virginia in 1661 or 1662. He had been settled in Northampton, Virginia, as
   early as 1656. When Scarburgh in 1663 invaded the Annemessex-Manokin
   neighborhood, Elzey remained loyal to the Maryland authorities. On Febru-
   ary 4, 1662/3, he was appointed the presiding justice on a new joint commis-
   sion to grant lands and to keep the peace, and in February 1663/4, was re-
   commissioned, serving until his death later in that year. Elzey was a member
   of the Church of England. He lived on his plantation, “Almodington “, on the
   Manokin River, and was buried there in May, 1664.
     Capt. William Thorne ( -1669), the first military commander of the lower
   Eastern Shore, and a member of the first commission there “ to keep the peace “,
   dated May 2, 1662, came into Maryland from Northampton County, Virginia,
   in 1661 or early in 1662. He was settled in Northampton County, Virginia,
   as early as January 1653/4. He was reappointed as a commissioner of the
   lower Eastern Shore of Maryland, April 28, 1663, and again, August 15, 1663.
   At the time Scarburgh invaded the Eastern Shore of Maryland in October
   1663, Thorne remained faithful to the Lord Proprietary. When Somerset
   County was erected in 1666, and the commissioners for that county were ap-
   pointed, August 22, the name of William Thorne immediately follows that