Introduction. xxiii

of James Hollyday, Sr. to draw upon certain funds of the Province deposited
by Hollyday in London, was of a public character, as these were public funds
which had been deposited there by Hollyday as treasurer of the Eastern Shore,
which the London depository refused to release on the executor's order without
legislative authority.

Nine new public laws, local in character, were passed at the March-April,
1762, session. The first act [No. /] passed March 22, continued all actions
pending in the Prince George's and Queen Anne's county courts which had
been called to meet on March 23, and authorized the adjournment of these
courts, without prejudice to causes, until the fourth Tuesday in June, because
certain of the attorneys practicing in them were now in attendance as members
of the Assembly, and were therefore "obliged to attend their Duty therein"
(pp. 178-179). A similar act [No. XXX] for the continuance of actions in
the Provincial Court already referred to was also passed for the same reason
(p. 209). Eight laws relating to parish and church affairs, tobacco inspection
warehouses, destruction of crows and squirrels in Baltimore County, and the
establishment of a market at Chestertown, were passed. The request for legis-
lation in nearly all uf these instances was brought to the attention of the
Assembly through petitions, and in several cases the same petitions had been
presented at former sessions and had been deferred, sometimes repeatedly, by
resolution of the Lower House "to the next meeting of the Assembly".

Legislation relating to six parishes was sought at the 1762 session and in
four instances was granted. Acts were passed authorizing the erection of
chapels of ease in Coventry Parish, Somerset County [No. XVI} (pp. xlix,
187-189), Port Tobacco Parish, Charles County [XXII] (pp. xlix, 194.195),
and St. Paul's Parish, Baltimore County \_XXV~\ (pp. 1, 200-202), and for the
erection of a new parish church in St. James Parish, Anne Arundel County
[XXVIII~\ (pp. 1, 205-206). These parochial acts are commented upon in
another section of this introduction (pp. xlix-li).

At the 1760 and 1761 sessions of the Assembly, the inhabitants of Chester-
town, Kent County, had by petition sought without success to secure legislative
authority to establish a market in that town to be maintained upon proper
regulations, but on each occasion action had been postponed in the Lower House
and the matter referred to the next session. At the March-April, 1762, session
a local act to this end was finally passed after amendments had been added
to the bill in the Upper House, providing that fines imposed for violation of
its provisions, be turned over to the market master for market repairs [No.
[XXXI7]. The preamble recites that the inhabitants had built a convenient
market house on a square suitably laid out as the market place, and that proper
regulation was necessary to prevent clandestine barterings and dealings with
servants and slaves. Market days were to be Wednesday and Saturday, but
perishable foods such as fish, oysters, fresh beef, and pork, might be sold any
day between early morning and noon, although no victuals or provisions might
be bought or sold within one mile of the market house during market hours,
except at the market, under a penalty of twenty shillings for each offense.
No animals were to be slaughtered at the market house nor were horses to