LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Baltimore, Dec. 1, 1945
To The Maryland Historical Society
GENTLEMEN:

The Committee on Publications now presents to the Maryland Historical
Society the sixty-second volume of the Archives of Maryland. It contains the
Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland, 1769-1770, and
is the thirtieth volume dealing with Assembly affairs. As has been done in the
past, the text (pp. 3-453) was printed directly from photostats of the original
manuscript records at the Hall of Records, in Annapolis.

Three sessions of the General Assembly were held at Annapolis during the
years 1769-1770, one session during 1769 and two in 1770. All were held
under the new Governor, Robert Eden (pp. I, 169, 345).

The members of this General Assembly had been elected in November-
December, 1767, while Horatio Sharpe was still Governor of Maryland. The
first session of this newly elected Assembly was held under him during May
and June, 1768 (Arch. Md. LXI, 279). On June 22 Governor Sharpe, with
the advice of his Council, prorogued this Assembly to October 4 of that year
(ibid. 420). Before that day arrived the Governor further prorogued the
Assembly until March 21, 1769 (Arch. Md. XXXII, 248-249) and by succes-
sive prorogations to July 27, 1769 (ibid. 270, 272, 274).

Horatio Sharpe, who had been governor of the province since 1753, received
words of praise not only from the Lord Proprietary (p. 4), but also was the
recipient of many laudatory farewell messages from others, including the Jus-
tices and Grand Jurors of the County Courts, the Mayor and City Council of
Annapolis, the Judges of the Provincial Court, the prominent attorneys, and the
Anglican clergy then serving in the colony. The names of those who signed
these addresses are their chief interest. In the case of the last two messages six
judges and twenty-one members of the bar signed and thirty-five clergymen of
the "Established Church" (Maryland Gazette, Nov. 3, 24, Dec. 1, 22, 1768;
Feb. 16, May 4, 25, 1769).

On June 6, 1769, Robert Eden became Governor of Maryland. In the Mary-
land Gazette, which was published each week on Thursday, there appeared in
the issue for June 8, 1769, an account of his arrival in Maryland:

On Monday Afternoon [June 5] arrived here in good Health, in the Ship
Lord Baltimore, Capt. Mitchel, his Excellency Robert Eden, Esq; our Governor,