ivi Introduction.

for their delay in investing certain funds in their hands in the stock of
the Bank of England, as required by the Act of 1733. But of more serious
import was the discovery that, in addition to small sums due the Province by
several naval officers charged with the collection of the fifteen pence export duty
per hogshead of tobacco imposed under the Paper Currency Act of 1733, the
Naval Officer of the Patuxent district, Henry Darnall, owed large sums for the
years 1757, 1758, 1759, and 1760, which he had failed to deposit with the
trustees in London of the Loan Office, to be invested by them in Bank of
England stock, as required under the Paper Currency Act of 1733 (pp. 412-
419). The attention of the Governor was called to this on April 28 in an
address to him from the Upper House, so that he might take immediate steps
to protect the public interest (p. 420). The Governor on the same day noti-
fied Attorney-General Stephen Bordley by letter, that he was satisfied from
the report of the joint committee of the two houses and from a petition he
had received from John Darnall, a brother of the delinquent Naval Officer,
and from Charles Carroll, the sureties for Henry Darnall, that the latter had
failed to remit to the trustees in London a sum of money amounting to about
£1,600, and suggested that the Attorney-General should, if it were legally
possible, accept from these bondsmen the amount of their penalty without
putting them to the expense of suit (Appendix pp. 519-520). Bordley replied
to the Governor saying that he had accepted bills of exchange for £1,000 from
these sureties (Appendix p. 520).

On April 30, 1761, the Governor, in a message to the Upper House, informed
it of the payment of the £1,000 by the sureties, and asked the house to advise
him as to what further steps should be taken to secure the balance due (p. 426).
The Upper House on May i advised him that the bills of exchange for the
amount of the penalty might properly be delivered to the Loan Office and by
them remitted to London; that the sureties were not further liable; that a suit
in equity against Darnall for the balance should be filed in the name of the
Lord Proprietary together with a writ of ne exeat provinciam; and an injunc-
tion be secured to stop the payment to Darnall of any money that might be
due him by others (pp. 426-427). Bordley, the Attorney-General, replied to
the Governor that he would at once take the measures recommended by the
Upper House (Appendix p. 521). The Governor then wrote to the com-
missioners of the Loan Office notifying them that he was instructing the
Attorney-General to deliver the bills of exchange to them, and directing them
to remit these to the London trustees of the sinking funds; and in a second
letter to the Attorney-General ordered him to deliver the bills of exchange to
the Loan Office to be by it transmitted to London (Appendix pp. 520-521).
John Darnall who was on the bond was a brother of the defaulting Naval
Officer, and the other surety was Charles Carroll of Annapolis, a first cousin
of the defaulter. This Charles Carroll was a prominent Roman Catholic and
the father of Charles Carroll of Carrollton; he was a distant relative of Charles
Carroll, the Barrister, a member of the Church of England who figures so
prominently in the Assembly proceedings of this time as a leader of the popular
party in the Lower House.