Introduction. liii

of a total tax of two hundred thousand pounds of tobacco to be used to pur-
chase for St. Andrew's Parish two acres of land and to build a church thereon;
this doubtless explains the nature of the 1763 petition (Hanson's Laws of
Maryland made since MDCCLXIII; acts of 1765, chapter iv).

At the November-December, 1758, Assembly, an act had been passed im-
posing a tax of two pence annually for fifteen years upon the inhabitants of
Port Tobacco Parish, Charles County, for the support of an organist (Arch.
Md. LVI; xxiii). This proved to be insufficient for the support of the organist,
and at the 1763 session a petition was presented on October 20 from that
parish asking that an additional tax of two pence annually per poll be imposed
for this purpose. This petition was promptly rejected in the Lower House
(p. 325)- A few days later, however, the matter was revived, and a bill was
introduced and passed on November 22, authorizing the imposition of an
additional tax of not more than two pence for the purpose (pp. 351, 383,
390, 516-517).

St. John's Parish, more commonly known as King George Parish, lying
in Prince George's and Charles counties, by petition to the Assembly at the
1763 session prayed that a tax of £350 current money be levied for the enlarge-
ment of the parish church, and an act to carry this out was passed on November
²3> * 763 (pp. 351 378» 263). Prince George's Parish, lying in Prince George's
and Frederick counties, sought authority to have a tax of seventy thousand
pounds of tobacco levied upon the inhabitants of that parish for the erection
of a chapel of ease, to be located at a point not disclosed by the petition.
Referred by the Upper House to the Lower House, it was promptly rejected
by the latter (pp. 228,321,325). This is doubtless the same petition, the
nature of which is not disclosed by the record, which had been presented at
the 1762 session (pp. 33, 149, 151). It is to be noted that at the 1771 session
an act was passed imposing a tax of ninety-six thousand pounds of tobacco to
be used to build a new parish church in Prince George's Parish (Hanson's
Laws of Maryland made since MDCCLXIII; acts of 1771, chapter iii).

Christ Church Parish, on Kent Island, Queen Anne's County, petitioned
the Assembly at the 1763 session "to take so much from St. Paul's Parish
[Kent County] as will make up a Competency for a Minister of Christ Church
who resides therein" (pp. 575-576); this petition was rejected in the Upper
House without reference to the lower chamber (p. 236), but it is to be noted
that an act was passed in 1765 altering the bounds of Christ Church Parish
(Hanson's Laws of Maryland made since MDCCLXIII; acts of 1765, chapter
xxxvii).

An epidemic of smallpox which had raged in the neighborhood of St.
Stephen's Parish, Cecil County, had prevented the meeting of its vestry on
Easter Monday, 1760, so that there had been no legal election of the vestry
at that time. At the April-May, 1761, session the Lower House passed a
bill to validate the proceedings of a later irregular meeting of the vestry, but
like all other legislation at this session, it failed of passage in the Upper House
(Arch. Md. LVI; Ivi, llxiv). This parish again petitioned the Assembly in
1763 to pass an act validating the actions of the vestry since that day and this
was done (pp. 228, 321, 325, 332, 348, 235, 426-427). Two petitions relating