LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
                                  Baltimore, December 1, 1943
     To the Maryland Historical Society
        GENTLEMEN:

      The Committee on Publications of the Maryland Historical Society presents
     as Volume LX of the Archives of Maryland the Proceedings of the Charles
     County Court 1666-1674. This is the ninth volume of the Court Series of the
     Archives. This volume is a direct continuation of the proceedings of this same
     county court, covering the years 1658-1666, which appeared in 1936 as Volume
     LIII of the Archives.
      It has been the plan of the Committee on Publications to publish in the Court
     Series, as a cross-section of the legal procedure of Maryland for the third
     quarter of the seventeenth century, the proceedings of the several courts of the
     Province. Those published embrace the Provincial (or General Court), the
     Court of Chancery, four county courts, and a manorial court. Until the year
     1694 when an independent Court of Appeals was established, the highest atrnel-
     late court in the Province was the Upper House of the General Assembly, sitting
     as a Court of Appeals. These Assembly proceedings have already been pub-
     lished. The proceedings of the Provincial Court from the establishment of the
     Province through the year 1670 have likewise appeared as volumes IV, X, XLI,
     XLIX, and LVII of the Archives. In these Provincial Court volumes down
     through the year 1668 will also be found entered the equity cases heard by these
     same justices when they sat as a court of chancery, but beginning with the year
     1669 a separate series of chancery record books begins. One chancery volume,
     covering the years 1669-1679, designated “Proceedings of the Court of Chan-
     cery”, has already appeared as Volume LI of the Archives.
      Two volumes of county court proceedings for the third quarter of the
     seventeenth century have been previously published. Only the court proceed-
     ings for the counties of Kent, Charles, Talbot, and Somerset for this period
     have been preserved; those for the other counties have been lost. The records
     of Kent (1648-1676), Talbot (1662-1664), Somerset (1665-1668), and
     Charles (1658-1666) have been printed in volumes LIII and LIV. The records,
     which are fragmentary, of the manor court of St. Clement's Manor (1659
     1672) have also been printed in Volume LIII. The volume which is now
     presented carries down the Charles County proceedings through the year 1674.
     Of the extant county court proceedings before the year 1675 there only remains
     for publication the proceedings of the Somerset County court from 1668
     to 1674.