xlii Introduction.

Market in the said town" and to provide for its regulation, and a bill to this
end passed the Lower House (pp. 410, 458, 490, 495, 431), but the requested
legislation was not enacted until the year 1762. The petition of the tobacco
inspectors of Elkridge Landing, Anne Arundel County, asking for an increase
in their salaries was favorably acted upon in the Lower House, as was a peti-
tion asking for the erection of a public tobacco warehouse in Vienna Town,
Dorchester County (pp. 410, 484, 485, 430); acts to this end were passed at
the 1762 session. Following the presentation of a petition, a bill was brought
in "to preserve the Breed of fish in the Susquehanna River", which was passed
in the Lower House by a vote of 21 to 9 and sent to the Upper House, where
like all other legislation, it died (pp. 495, 432). A petition asking the Assembly
to prohibit "fixing any Wares [fish weirs] in Patuxent River .... or ob-
structing the natural Channel" was not considered before adjournment (p.
431). Nor was action taken upon a petition to make the Patuxent navigable,
"which it was ordered should be submitted to Mr. Richard Snowden", the
wealthy iron merchant and a large landowner of that neighborhood. This peti-
tion seems to have sought to exempt the Patuxent River from the operations
of the act of 1735 relating to the preservation of harbors and the erection of
weirs (p. 410).

Various individuals on their own behalf, or in their administrative capacity,
presented .petitions requesting legislation. James Holliday Jr., the legal repre-
sentative of James Holliday Sr., late of Queen Anne's County, deceased, and
late Treasurer of the Eastern Shore, petitioned the Assembly to grant him
authority to draw upon the Provincial funds deposited with William Hunt,
a London merchant, by the elder Holliday, to enable the younger Holliday to
make certain adjustments necessary to settle his father's estate and to pay
certain sums for the use of the Dorchester County school (pp. 409, 431, 458,
482, 484). The widow and administratrix of Tobias Stansbury, late of Balti-
more County, asked authority to sell certain lands for the payment of her
late husband's debts (pp. 431, 450, 451, 494). Although no action was taken
upon these two petitions at this meeting, they came up and were acted upon
at the 1762 Assembly. The executors of John Paca, late of Baltimore County,
requested the passage of an act to permit the sale of certain lands to pay the
debts of William Hammond, deceased (pp. 427, 487). Action upon this was
also deferred until the next session, but the necessary legislation was not passed
until 1763. William and Mary Clason, executors of Gamaliel Butler, asked
legal authority to sell certain lots in Annapolis (pp. 405, 451), but the requested
legislation was passed not until 1762. Petitions from a number of Maryland
"volunteers at Fort Duquesne" praying that an allowance may be made them
for their Trouble and Fatigue", and one from a maimed private, who had
served under Colonel Dagworthy, begging "relief", were referred to the next
Assembly (pp. 408, 419, 000, 451). Why Dr. Upton Scott, a prominent physi-
cian of Annapolis, should have petitioned the Lower House, and why the peti-
tion should have been so promptly rejected, remains a mystery (pp. 465, 470).

As the impasse between the two houses prevented the passage of any legis-
lation at this session, the Governor on May 6, 1761, prorogued the Assembly