xxvi Introduction.

SESSION OF NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1766

The May, 1766, session of the Assembly which came to an end on the
29th, had been prorogued to meet again on October 27, 1766, but doubtless
because there were not "a sufficient number of delegates present to compose
a Lower House", to use the conventional expression, which seems to have
meant at least half the membership, it was prorogued day by day by Gov-
ernor Sharpe until November i, when it finally met (Arch. Md. XIV; 164-
165). This was the fourth and last meeting of the Assembly which had been
elected in 1764.

There was a small attendance of members of the Upper House at this
session, which normally had a membership of twelve. In addition to the
President, Benjamin Tasker, there were present only Benedict Calvert, Daniel
Dulany, Richard Lee, John Ridout, and Henry Hooper. There were still
vacancies in the Council and Upper House caused by the deaths in 1764 of
Philip Key and Stephen Bordley, which had not yet been filled; and another
caused by the death of Robert Jenkins Henry who had died just before the
beginning of the session. Charles Hammond and Charles Goldsborough seem
to have been too ill to attend, and Edward Lloyd, at odds with John Morton
Jordan, the recently appointed special revenue officer of the Proprietary,
absented himself as he had done at the previous session. Letters from Sharpe
about this date continually urged upon the Lord Proprietary the importance
of filling the vacancies, and suggested prominent persons sympathetic with the
Proprietary interest from whom selections for the three vacancies might be
made. Those suggested by him from whom a choice might be made were Robert
Goldsborough, Walter Dulany, John Beale Bordley, Henry Hollyday, George
Plater, and Charles Graham (Arch. Md. XIV, 333-335). Later, Bordley in
1768, and Walter Dulany, in 1767, were appointed. Before that session opened
the portrait of Frederick, Lord Baltimore, and his coat of arms, which he
had recently sent to be hung in the Council Chamber, where the Upper House
also sat, had been received and acknowledged by Sharpe (Arch. Md. XIV,

273. 309).

There were a few changes in the membership of the Lower House, special
elections having been held to fill three vacancies caused by death. A few days
before the November-December, 1765, session came to an end, Col. Henry
Travers, a member from Dorchester County, died at Annapolis of smallpox
and the Lower House on December 18, ordered an election to be held to fill
his place (Arch. Md. LIX, 251). Col. John Henry succeeded him, sitting for
the first time in the November-December, 1766, Assembly (pp. 119, 191).
Thomas Key of St. Mary's County was chosen at a special election held in
June, 1766, to succeed his brother Edmund Key who had died May nth.
Thomas Key took his seat at the November-December, 1766, session (pp. 93,
143; Md. Gas. May 8 and June 26, 1766). The committee on elections re-
ported that the writs of election of both Henry and Key were returned although
the endorsements were not duly entered (p. 203), but both elections were
accepted. A writ of election was ordered November 29, 1766, to fill the vacancy
caused by the death of James Heath of Baltimore County (p. 196). Heath