xiv Introduction.

and the Council which sat as the Upper House, as completely as its predecessors
had done.

The members of the Governor's Council, who, as such, also composed the
Upper House, when the new Assembly met in October, 1738, were the Hon-
orable Benjamin Tasker, Sr., (1690-1768) of Annapolis, since 1722 a member
of the Council, and since 1727 its President, and who had served in 1752 and
1753 as Acting Governor; his son, Benjamin Tasker, Jr. (1720-1760) of
Calvert County; Samuel Chamberlaine (1697-1773) of Talbot County; Colonel
Charles Hammond (1692-1762) and Philip Thomas (1692-1762), both of
Anne Arundel County; Benedict Calvert (1724-1788) of "Mount Airy", Prince
George's County, natural son of Charles, Fifth Lord Baltimore, and half-
brother of Frederick, Sixth Lord Baltimore, the present lord Proprietary;
Richard Lee (1705-1787) of Charles County; Daniel Dulany, the Younger,
(1722-1797) of Frederick County, at that time the leading lawyer of the
Province; Colonel Edward Lloyd (1711-1770) of "Wye", Queen Anne's
County, Land Agent of the Proprietary, and since 1743 a member of the
Council; William Goldsborough (1709-1760) of Talbot, and Robert Jenckins
Henry (e. 1712-1766) of Somerset. Lloyd and Henry were frequently absent
from meetings, and Goldsborough and Thomas were both then too ill to attend
meetings and died not long afterward, as did Benjamin Tasker, Jr. The ability,
industry, loyalty, and value to the proprietary interest of these several members
of the Upper House and Council at this period are discussed in great detail in
long letters from Sharpe to Frederick, Lord Baltimore, and to Secretary Ce-
cilius Calvert, dated respectively May 23, and July 7, 1760 (Arch. Md. IX, 403-

415,423-435)-

Some sixteen new members of the Lower House who had not been in the
previous Assembly, were among those elected. The new members were Thomas
Greenfield of St. Mary's County, William Waters of Somerset, James John
Mackall and Colonel William Fitzhugh of Calvert County, Samuel Bowman
and Captain Woolman Gibson of Talbot, Richard Gresham of Kent, Major
Henry Travers and Charles Goldsborough of Dorchester, Major Benjamin
Handy and Captain Zadock Purnell of Worcester, Josias Beall, Jr. of Prince
George's, Colonel William Hopper and Thomas Harris of Queen Anne's, and
Captain Henry Wright Crabb of Frederick.

In the Lower House nearly all the aggressive leaders of the popular or anti-
Proprietary party in recent assemblies had been re-elected. We again find on
all the leading committees, Charles Carroll, the Barrister, Colonel Edward
Tilghman, Edward Dorsey, Philip Hammond, William Murdock, Robert Lloyd,
and John Goldsborough. Conspicuous for its absence on the list of new members
was the name of Matthew Tilghman of Talbot County, although he was to
reappear later, when in 1760, he was chosen at a special election to fill the
vacancy caused by the death of Thomas Harris of Queen Anne's County. The
leaders of the Proprietary party were the two members from the city of Annapo-
lis, Dr. George Steuart and Walter Dulany. Steuart, so hated by the popular
party, seems to have been the mouthpiece of the government in the house, and
every effort, fair or foul, was to be taken to prevent his retaining his seat.