xlii Introduction.

member is very old & infirm as is also Mr. [Samuel] Chamberlaine who is
become so deaf that as he says himself he is quite unqualified & for that Reason
will I believe desire permission to retire or resign." Colonel Richard Lee "tho
not old is so often laid up by the Gout that he can seldom stir from home";
and Colonel Edward Lloyd of Wye House "is so much dissatisfied with Things,
he has been told were reported of him by Mr Jordan that I question whether
he will choose to act again in any public Station", at least he altogether declined
giving any Attendance at the last Session (Arch. Md. XIV, 509). This was
John Morton Jordan recently sent over by Frederick, the Lord Proprietary,
as his special revenue officer, who had criticized Lloyd for the indifference with
which he administered his office of Receiver General. With the death of Tasker
there were only six of the twelve members whose attendance could, there-
fore, be counted upon.

The composition of the Lower House had been considerably changed by
the election of December, 1767. There were twenty-six new members, an
unusually large proportion, nearly one-half, out of a membership of fifty-eight.
A few of these had, however, been members of previous assemblies, but not
of that elected in 1764. The most prominent of these was Matthew Tilghman
from Talbot, often referred to as the "Father of the Revolution", who later
became the Chairman of the Revolutionary Convention of Maryland. The most
notable new member was William Paca of Annapolis, who was later to sign
the Declaration of Independence and become Governor of Maryland. Paca
succeeded Samuel Chase in this Assembly as one of the two delegates from
Annapolis, Chase having been chosen as one of the four representatives from
Anne Arundel County. Another notable new member was Thomas Jenings,
elected from Frederick County, a young Englishman, who had recently
settled in Annapolis and become one of the leading lawyers of the Prov-
ince, and who, on November 2, 1768, became Attorney General of Maryland.
Benjamin Mackall (1745-1804) "son of James John" of "God's Graces", Cal-
vert County, who later became a member of the Maryland Court of Appeals,
was another newcomer in the Lower House, he is not identical with the Ben
jamin Mackall, his cousin, who represented this same county in immediately
preceding assemblies. Nor should the Stephen Bordley (1709-1776) who now
represented Kent County, be confused with his first cousin, Stephen Bordley
(1709-1764) of Annapolis, the Middle Templer and distinguished Maryland
lawyer and member of the Council and Upper House. William Hayward of
Somerset County, later became a member of the Governor's Council, so he was
doubtless of the Proprietary faction in the Lower House. John Moale (1731-
1798) who, with three other members of the Baltimore County delegation,
John Ridgely, Robert Adair and Thomas Cockey Deye, was unseated because
too much liquor had been given the voters at their election, later became the
presiding justice of the Baltimore County Court and Colonel of the Baltimore
Town Militia during the Revolution. Henry Hooper, Jr. (died 1790) of Dor-
chester, son of the recently deceased former speaker of the Lower House and
Councillor of the same name, had a creditable legislative and military career.

Nearly all the leaders of the popular party had again been returned. The
most outstanding of these were William Smallwood, Edward Tilghman, John