Introduction. xxv

Sixtyeth or Royal American Regiment", was a British Army officer of French-
Protestant descent who had served with great distinction against the French
and Indians in the Seven Years' War. He had recently purchased from Daniel
Dulany, a tract of land in the neighborhood of Elizabethtown, later Hagers-
town, in what was then Frederick County, which was in 1763, resurveyed
and patented to Bouquet, under the name of Long Meadow Enlarged, contain-
ing four thousand, one hundred and sixty-three acres. An act of naturalization
was required so that he, as a "foreigner", might have a legal title to this land.
Why this was necessary is a little curious as one would think that his long
service as an officer in the British Army would have given him the status of
a British subject, but he was legally considered a foreigner. Bouquet first saw
service in the Low Countries with the Dutch, and later in the War of the
Austrian Succession. In 1755, he became Lieutenant-Colonel of flie Royal
American Regiment, and in 1758 he was given the rank of Colonel (in America
only), but in 1762 was made Colonel by brevet. Just before his death in 1765,
he was formally thanked by the King, and made a Brigadier-General. He
rendered notable service under General Forbes in the capture of Fort Duquesne,
and in 1763, at the time of the Pontiac conspiracy, inflicted a signal defeat on
the Indians. It is not believed that he ever actually lived on his tract, "Long
Meadows Enlarged", near Hagerstown. After his death the Maryland Assembly
in May 1766 passed an act authorizing the recording of Bouquet's will in the
Prerogative Office at Annapolis; this was doubtless to establish the legal owner-
ship of his Maryland land.

Of Frederick Victor, described in the naturalization act as "of the City of
Annapolis, Gentleman", little has been learned. The vestry records of St. Ann's
Church, Annapolis, show that he was organist of that parish, 1761.1763, and
that on October 6, 1761, he was paid £10 for his "valuable care" in putting up
the organ which had lately been bought in England. He was listed in July,
1762, as a bachelor "of the Value of 100 f and under 3Oo£", but in April, 1763,
his "value" had been raised to 3<x>£ and upwards. The last mention of him
is in December, 1763. What became of him later is a mystery. Perhaps he
sought other fields where his musical abilities were better appreciated. An
attempt made at the 1763 session to secure the imposition of a poll tax of
eight pounds of tobacco on the inhabitants of St. Anne's Parish, for the
support of an organist (p. 226), was doubtless in behalf of Frederick Victor
(pp. 226, 325). It was rejected by the Lower House, which probably accounts
for the disappearance of Victor from St. Anne's (pp. 318, 325).

Bills which fail of passage in a legislative body, especially if passed by
one house and rejected by the other representing a more privileged group, often
throw more light upon social, and political under-currents of thought, and
better foretell future trends, than do the laws actually placed upon the statute
books. This was especially true in Maryland for the period under consideration.
Thus the Supply or Assessment bill, in its various forms, passed nine times in
the Lower House during the seven year period from 1756 to 1762, and rejected
in each instance in the Upper House, reveals a deep-seated conflict of interests