Introduction. lxxv

graveyard (Hanson's Laws of Maryland, 1787; September-November, 1770,
chap, xv).

The petition of the vestry and sundry inhabitants of St. John's Parish,
Queen Anne's County, presented to the Upper House on June 17, 1768, repre-
sented that "the Parish Church is greatly impaired and there is a necessity
for building a Chapel of Ease and that there is now in the hands of the Vestry
of the said Parish about the sum of Twelve hundred Pounds Current Money
to be applied for that Purpose—[and that as] there are various Opinions
amongst the Parishioners—whereon it may be proper to place the said Church
and Chapel of Ease, it is therefore thought fit by this General Assembly for
settling all differences amongst the Parishioners that the Assembly decide"
(pp. 301, 463-464). The proceeds of a tax not exceeding 100,000 pounds of
tobacco were authorized, to be added to the £1200 already in the hands of
the Vestry, to build and furnish a parish church on the two acres at Nine
Bridges given by Mr. Thomas Wright, and a chapel of ease at Tuckahoe Bridge
where the present church stands. Authority was also given to sell the two acres
at Chickens Bridge formerly acquired for erecting a parish church (pp. 464-
465). It is to be noted in this connection that at the 1769 session an act was
passed for determining the bounds of four parishes in Queen Anne's and Talbot
Counties, one of which was St. John's Parish.

Stepney Parish in Somerset and Worcester Counties, as the result of a
petition from the Vestry and inhabitants (p. 289), obtained authority to build
chapels of ease at the head of Wicomico River and at Spring Hill. The pre-
amble of the act recites that the chapel of ease known as Godderd's Chapel
"is not only much out of Repair and unfit to attend divine Service therein but
inconveniently situated for the Parishioners and that their Chapel of Ease
to be repaired" (p. 436). Authority was granted to the justices of Somerset and
Worcester Counties to levy a tax of 160,000 pounds of tobacco for this purpose,
to be apportioned against the taxable inhabitants of the Parish residing in
these two counties, 100,000 pounds to be expended for the purchase of a lot of
two acres at the head of and on the south side of Wicomico River in Somerset
County above the mill of William Venables and for the erection thereon of a
chapel of ease; the purchase of a two acre lot and the erection of a chapel of
ease near where the Spring-Hill Chapel in Somerset County stands (pp. 436-
438). At the September, 1770, session, authority was given to Stepney Par-
ish to purchase a two acre lot on the north side of Broad Creek near the
bridge, and to erect thereon a chapel of ease, the justices of Somerset and
Worcester counties respectively to levy a tax of 80,000 pounds of tobacco in
the years 1770 and 1771 upon the taxable parish inhabitants for that purpose
(Hanson's laws of Maryland, 1787; September, 1770, chap. viii). The As-
sembly at the 1771 session authorized an additional tax of 60,000 pounds of
tobacco to enable Stepney Parish to complete three chapels of ease, one at
Spring Hill, one at the head of Wicomico, and one at Broad Creek; and
"to remove certain doubts" declared the parish church to be the church at Green
Hill (ibid; Acts of 1771; chap. ix).

A petition from the Rector and Vestry of St. Anne's Parish (Anne Arundel