lxxiv Introduction.

ated as might be, and also that Monie Church in the same Parish is too small
for the Parishioners that attend"; and authority was granted to abandon the
chapel of ease at King's Mill and to levy a tax of 144,000 pounds of tobacco
upon the inhabitants of the Parish for the purchase of land and the erection,
at a cost of £8oo, of a chapel of ease at Princess Anne Town, and for the
enlargement of the church at Monie at a cost of £100 (pp. 96, 101, 102, 104,
15°, 153, 157, 167, 227-229). The parish authorities of Trinity Parish,
Charles County, and the principal inhabitants of Benedict Hundred in that
parish, petitioned the Assembly for permission to levy a tax of 50,000 pounds
of tobacco to purchase land and to erect thereon a chapel of ease "at the west
entrance into Villet's old fields near the Main road that leadeth from Bryon
Town to Benedict, the said situation being Convenient not only for the
inhabitants of Benedict Hundred but many others Contiguous thereto." An
act to this end was passed (pp. no, 113, 152, 167, 180, 183, 185, 186, 231-232).

At the 1768 Assembly matters relating to four parishes came up for con-
sideration. These were Chester, Kent County; Stepney, Someret County; St.
John's, Queen Anne's County; and St. Anne's, Anne Arundel County; all of
which came before the Assembly in the form of petitions to the Upper House
by the vestries, church wardens, and inhabitants of the parishes. If the petition
seemed meritorious to the upper chamber it referred it to the Lower House
but, if not deemed worthy of consideration, it was at once rejected without
reference.

Chester Parish sought and obtained in 1768 legislation authorizing the build-
ing of a new and larger chapel of ease in rapidly growing Chestertown. The
act of 1765 had authorized the expenditure of 50,000 pounds of tobacco to
enlarge the old building in Chestertown used as a chapel. This money, ap-
parently, had not been spent and it was now proposed to add to that amount
contributions made by "many well disposed people [who] have Voluntarily
Subscribed large Sums of Money to the Amount of 500 Pounds or Upward."
The chapel was to be built on a new site on ground owned by the public at the
corner of High and Cross Streets, the building to be of brick with a stone
foundation, and it was to be sixty feet long by forty feet wide, and to be two
stories high. Pew holders in the old chapel were to have as good pews in the
new building as in the old; subscribers to the £500 fund and residents of Ches-
tertown to pay the cost of the erection of the pews, these to be drawn by lot;
subscribers of over £10 were entitled to a full sized pew; those under £10 to
have a half pew. One pew holder, Thomas Marsh, was to have a preferred
status, the law providing that the pews "shall be in all Numbered except the
one Mister Thomas Marsh may Choose he having Previously subscribed 70
Pounds Current Money on Consideration of having his choice of a Pew in the
said Chapel" (p. 434). Pews not otherwise disposed of as above might be
purchased in the order of application by any freeholder of the parish owning
at least fifty acres of land (pp. 302, 303, 307, 312, 345, 357, 375, 380, 386,
391, 395, 432-436). It is to be noted that at the September-November, 1770,
session, a bill was passed authorizing the expenditure of £360 current money
for furnishing and enclosing the chapel at Chestertown and enclosing the