Introduction. xxvii

Several petitions praying legislative action were either rejected, or their
consideration postponed until the next session. A petition was presented at
the 1762 session in the Upper House by "Reb^a Stokes of Baltimore County
Widow praying a Town may be laid out on a Tract of Land called Harmer's
Town upon Susquehanna", but was promptly rejected (p. 20). Rebecca Stokes
was the widow of Robert Stokes who lived on the tract Harmer's Town patented
under this name in 1658 at the mouth of the Susquehanna, where the city of
Havre de Grace, founded in 1785, now stands. It is uncertain what connection,
if any, there was between this petition and the petition which was presented
at the 1763 session of the Assembly praying that a town, to be called Charlotte
Town, be laid out in Baltimore County at the mouth of the Susquehanna
River (p. 232). The petition for the establishment of Charlotte Town will
be discussed later (p. xxxiv). Petitions from St. Peter's Parish, Talbot
County, for authority to establish a chapel of ease (pp. 105, 155), and from
Prince George's Parish, Prince George's County, apparently for similar
authority, were presented, but were not acted upon (pp. 33, 149, 151). A
petition of sundry inhabitants of George Town, Frederick County, and also
one from sundry inhabitants of Talbot and Dorchester counties, the nature
of which are not disclosed, were also referred to the next session (pp. 16,
105, 155). The character of the petition of the Mayor, Recorder, alderman,
and common council of the city of Annapolis upon which action was also
deferred is not revealed (p. 20, 105, 155). Another petition, of an undisclosed
nature, from the inhabitants of Anne Arundel County was considered in the
Lower House on April 20, 1762, and by a vote of twenty-nine to ten, action
upon it was deferred until the next Assembly (p. 148). This was doubtless the
petition for the establishment of a town at Elk Ridge Landing which was
rejected in the Upper House at the 1763 session (p. xxxiii). The petition
of Henry Ward of Cecil County was also deferred (pp. 116, 155). It is not
quite clear why a petition presented by John Paca and others, executors of
the estate of John Paca, Jr., of Baltimore County, requesting legislation grant-
ing them authority to sell certain lands, which had been presented at successive
sessions since 1758, should have been again deferred (pp. 17, 105, 133, 427,
431). It may be added, however, that the requested legislation was enacted
at the 1763 session. For some undisclosed reason no petitions were presented
in the Assembly at the 1762 session for the relief of debtors languishing in
prison, nor did petitions of this kind come before the 1763 session.

The 1762 Assembly, after a five weeks session, was prorogued on April 24,
to meet again on September 13, 1762, but the sequel shows that after several
postponements it was not brought together until October, 1763. The 1762
session was not an important one. The long-standing matters in controversy
between the two houses were becoming a little shopworn, and although some
of the messages display considerable apparent acrimony, one rather feels that
much that was said was "for the record", and that both sides were becoming
a little weary of the long continued war of words.