Introduction. xliii

the whole question of their relief (Arch. Md. LVI, xxii, xxxvi, lxxiv, 509-514;
ibid. LVIII, xxvii, Ixxv, Ixxix, 583-589; ibid. LIX, xii, xxvii, lix-lx, 278-282;
ibid. LXI, li, Ixxvi-lxxviii, 68-73, 2²47-252, 468-472).

During 1769 and 1770 three laws were passed for the relief of prisoners for
debt. An act passed at the November-December session in 1769 provided for
the relief of about eighty debtors, three of whom were women (pp. 159-164),
while a similar law enacted at the November 5-21 session in 1770 granted relief
to sixty-six, including two women (pp. 445-449). At the session which met
from September 25 to November 2, in 1770, relief was granted to only one
debtor named Thomas Weems (pp. 335-338).

Many prisoners for debt petitioned the General Assembly during the years
1769 and 1770. While most of them received favorable consideration, some
did not (pp. 28-29, 88-89, 183, 184, 191-193, 358). Imprisoned debtors would
sometimes give notice to their creditors that they intended to apply to the next
Assembly for "Relief and Enlargement" (Maryland Gazette, Mar. 9, Apr. 20,
July 6, 13, 1769). Amendments to the act for the relief of prisoners for debt
were offered and discussed during the short November 5-21 session of 1770

(pp. 353-354, 300, 362, 392-393. 404, 409).

THE EDITOR.

Editor's Note. With the publication of the last volume Dr. J. Hall Pleasants
resigned as the Editor of the Archives of Maryland. At a meeting of the
President and Council of the Maryland Historical Society on February 20,
1945, his resignation was accepted with profound regret. In connection with
Dr. Pleasants' work as Editor the following resolution was then passed
unanimously:

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
THAT—

When the sudden death of the late Dr. Bernard C. Steiner ended without
warning his inestimable service so long and so well borne as Editor of the
Maryland Archives, Volume 45 of the Archives had not been completed. The
Maryland Historical Society instinctively turned to Dr. Jacob Hall Pleasants in
that critical emergency. He generously and promptly undertook the further
editorial work in connection with others needed to complete Volume 45.

Projected as he was suddenly upon that editorial task in 1927, he has, at
personal sacrifice through all the changes, with rare erudition, painstaking
precision and unwavering diligence, to the complete satisfaction of critics,
students and the members of this Society, edited all succeeding volumes of
the Archives from Volume 46 to Volume 61, both inclusive. These sixteen
massive volumes must stand for all time as monumental proof of his quality
as an editor, historian and unselfish devotee of pure learning.