Introduction. lxxiii

At the May, 1766, session, petitions were presented asking for legislation
affecting five parishes, Chester in Kent County, Somerset in Somerset County,
Stepney in Somerset and Worcester Counties, William and Mary in Charles
County, and St. Paul's in Baltimore County. Neither the journals of the Upper
nor the Lower House for this session disclose the nature of three of these
several petitions, but the proceedings of the November-December, 1766, ses-
sion, do. Such petitions were first presented in the Upper House, and, if
approved, were referred to the Lower House. Here they might be favorably
acted upon, rejected, or referred to the next Assembly. Chester Parish sought
authority to erect a Vestry House and enclose a churchyard which was not fav-
orably acted upon at this session (p. 25), but at the November-December,
1766, session, authority was granted; Somerset Parish sought authority to
enlarge the Church at Monie and to build a chapel of ease at Princess Anne,
which was not acted upon by the Lower House at this session (pp. 5, 24),
but was also granted at the next session. The petition from St. Paul's Parish,
Baltimore County, related to the nomination of inspectors by the vestry for the
Baltimore Town tobacco warehouse, and an act for this end was passed (pp. 85-
87). The Stepney Parish petition, which was laid on the table in the Lower
House (pp. 7, 28), doubtless asked for authority to build two chapels of ease,
one on the Wicomico River and one near Spring Hill, as an act authorizing
these was passed at the 1768 session, and will be referred to presently. The
character of the petition of William and Mary Parish in Charles County (pp. 8,
48) is not disclosed, nor does later legislation reveal its character.

Four parishes sought legislation at the November-December, 1766, session;
these were Christ Church Parish, Queen Anne's County, Chester Parish, Kent
County, Somerset Parish, Somerset County, and Trinity Parish, Charles
County. A petition from the Vestry of Christ Church Parish, Queen Anne's
County, the nature of which is not disclosed, was presented (p. 101), but no
action seems to have been taken upon it. It may be recalled that at the Novem-
ber-December, 1765, session, an act had been passed changing the bounds of
this and adjoining parishes in Queen Anne and Talbot Counties (Arch. Md.
LIX, xviii, 314-319). At the November-December, 1766, session, an act was
passed for the erection of a vestry house in connection with the parish church
at I.U. in Chester Parish, Kent County, and for enclosing the churchyard,
these to be paid for out of the surplus left over from the erection of the
parish church (pp. 99, ioo, 104, 144, 151, 156, 158, 225-227). It will be
recalled that the erection of a parish called Chester with the parish church
at I.U. and with a chapel of ease at Chestertown, had been authorized by the
1765 Assembly (Arch. Md. LIX, lvii, 299-302). As will presently be seen, at
the 1768 session authority was sought and obtained to build a new brick chapel
in Chester Town to replace the old building used as a chapel, purchased under
authority of the act of 1765. At the November-December, 1766, Assembly,
legislation was secured by Somerset Parish in Somerset County to permit the
abandonment of a chapel of ease known as "King's Mill Chapel", because "it
is now much decayed and in a little time will be dangerous ..... and too small
for the reception of the Congregation thereto adjacent, and not so well situ-