xxxvi Introduction.

of Chancery in equity cases involving between f 5 and £20. The bill as intro-
duced gave rise to amendments added in the Upper House and to an exchange
of messages between the two houses. Up to this time the High Court of
Chancery had exclusive jurisdiction in all chancery cases, but under the act
of 1715 would not hear cases involving less than £5 sterling or twelve hundred
pounds of tobacco (the then value of tobacco). It was felt by the Lower House,
and finally acquiesced in by the upper chamber, that as it was often a hardship
for individuals to be unable to have any relief in equity for amounts less than
£5, and further that as it was frequently too expensive to litigants to seek
relief at great distances from home when amounts between £5 and £20 were
involved, the county courts should be opened to equity cases, if the amount
involved did not exceed £20 sterling or five thousand pounds of tobacco. The
High Court of Chancery, however, was to have concurrent jurisdiction in
cases involving £5 to £20 (pp. 313, 237-238, 364.365, 255-256, 504.507).

Renewal of Indian warfare on the western frontier in 1763, following the
establishment of peace between Great Britain and France, is discussed else-
where in this introduction (pp. ixx-lxxii). These Indian depredations on the
frontier resulted in the passage of two new acts by the 1763 Assembly, and
the continuance of an old act about to expire relating to Indian spies. One of
these new acts offered a bounty of £50 current money for the capture or scalp
of an enemy Indian (pp. 417, 419), and the other act forbade practically all
trade with Indians, even with friendly ones (pp. 419, 420).

There had been a marked increase in the number of negro slaves brought
into the Province in the past five years, and as a source of revenue for the
county schools an act was passed adding an additional import duty on negroes
of £2 per capita to be applied to the support of the county schools (pp. 512,
513). The imposition of taxes imposed under the £40,000 Supply Act of
1756, was about to cease under the terms of this act. The Assembly now
passed a supplementary act to continue the imposition of these taxes until
December 29, 1764 (pp. 513, 516). Under the £90,000 Paper Currency act
of 1733, still in force, certain export duties collected by the naval officers of the
several ports of entry were to be sent by them to trustees in London appointed
under this act, to be invested by the trustees in the Capital Stock of the Bank
of England to the credit of the sinking fund. Some of the naval officers had
failed to make their deposits with the London trustees, and a supplementary
act passed at the 1763 session directed the officers thereafter to pay these duties
to the commissioners of the Loan Office at Annapolis in bills of exchange upon
London (pp. 503, 504). The large defalcation of Henry Darnall, Naval Officer
of the Patuxent district, and the delinquency of Benjamin Young of the Poco-
moke district, doubtless led to the enactment of this law (Arch. Md. LVI;
Iv-lviii). The act for the encouragement of Jonas Green, the public printer,
made slight changes in the act for his "encouragement" passed in 1762
(pp. 5:8-519). Jonas Green and his difficulties with the Assembly are dis-
cussed elsewhere in this introduction (pp. ixxii-lxxv).

Three private acts were passed at the 1763 session. The first of these
[Wo. XV~\ was an act to empower John Paca, Robert Adair, Moses Hill, and