lxxii Introduction.

was not to be operative until nine months after its passage, before which time
it was felt that the Proprietary's attitude towards such legislation could be
learned (pp. 304-305, 315, 319, 361, 383, 400, 405, 406, 412, 420). But
Sharpe, although favorable to the bill, felt that he should not give his assent
to any act that might affect the prerogative of the Proprietary even with the
nine-months' suspension clause, until he had learned the attitude of Frederick,
Lord Baltimore, towards it. Under date of June 23, 1768, the Governor
wrote the Proprietary that the bill had been "laid aside by him until he knew
his Lordship's sentiments upon it" (Arch. Md. XIV, 510). It was not until
three years later, when the Proprietary had finally acquiesced in its passage,
that legislation of the same general character was passed at the October-
November, 1771, session (Hanson's Laws of Maryland, 1787; Acts of 1771,
chap, xxxi).

Coventry Parish, Worcester County, had had for twenty years as its rector,
the notorious Reverend Nathaniel Whitaker, who died November 3, 1766.
After his death Governor Sharpe had written to the Lord Proprietary of
Whitaker, that "by his Sottishness and immoral Behaviour [he] had long been
considered an intolerable Burthen by his Parishioners" (Arch. Md. XIV, 480).
Daniel Dulany referred to him as "a Man not only unfit for the Station in
which he was placed, but so infamously profligate that it would have been a
discredit to any Person of Character to admit him to the Regard and notice of a
common acquaintance" (Arch. Md. XXXII, 225). A petition, signed by 183
parishioners of Coventry Parish, of whom six were vestrymen and two church
wardens, dated May 16, 1767, is printed in the Appendix. It requests the Gov-
ernor to appoint as Whitaker's successor a rector who met the approbation of
the parishioners, and suggests the name of the Reverend Dr. Thomas Bradley
Chandler (pp. 513-517). It will be recalled that the appointment of the clergy
in Maryland was the exclusive prerogative of the Lord Proprietary and one
which he jealously exercised. Five prominent parishioners of Coventry Parish
on November 25, 1766, two days after Whitaker's death, signed a letter to
Governor Sharpe, urging that no appointment be made without the approbation
of the congregation. This letter requested that the Reverend Andrew Morton be
appointed rector, the writers saying that "you will not conceive that we claim
this as an absolute right", but expressed the hope that they may be granted
this indulgence as more than twenty years had passed without their having had
the Gospel preached to them except by visiting clergymen and this at their
own expense (Arch. Md. XIV, 349). An undated letter, but one obviously
written somewhat later, from the vestry and church wardens of Coventry to
Sharpe, shows that the Governor had without consulting the parishioners ap-
pointed the Reverend John Rosse. This appointment resulted in such violent
opposition developing against him that he had refused to accept (ibid, p. 363-
369, 480-481). Sharpe then appointed the Reverend Philip Hughes as rector.
His appointment seems at first also to have aroused opposition, which however,
soon quieted down (ibid. 481). It was doubtless such episodes as these that
contributed to the attempt at the 1768 session to secure the passage of the law
for the regulation of the clergy.