" BY THE LIEUTENANT OF MARYLAND.     " These are in the Lord Proprietary's name to authorize and appoint Captain Robert Vaughan Commander of the Isle of Kent County within the said Province of Maryland to grant Warrants for land within the said county to any adventurers or planters according to his Lordship's Condicions of Plantation, whereupon such land shall happen to be due to such adventurers or planters respectively, he the said Captain Robert Vaughan causing the said Warrants, together with the particular demands or assignments upon which the same shall be granted to be entered upon record by his Lordship's Secretary of the said Province who is to have his usual due fees for such Warrants and Entrys. Given at Providence in Ann Arundel County this 29th July Anno Domi. 1650.                                         WM. STONE."     LIB. No.1, fol. 170. ¾     A like authority was given to the (m)Commander of Ann Arundel County, but, on the 18th of December 1652, Governor Stone issued a Proclamation, in which, after reciting these Commissions, and stating that not only the transmitting an account of Warrants, demands and assignments as required, to the Secretary's office was somewhat neglected, but the due return of Certificates under those Warrants also omitted, to the great prejudice of his Lordship in his rents, &c. he revoked all such appointments;¾charged these Commanders to make full returns of their proceedings, and the Surveyor General not to " presume" for the future to survey any land within the Province without some Warrant or special direction from him (the Governor) or from the Proprietary; " his, (the said Surveyors), former irregular and " unwarrantable proceedings therein having occasioned much " trouble and inconvenience, to the great abuse both of his " Lordship's authority and the inhabitants." ¾     Notwithstanding the abuses here complained of, the Government found an absolute necessity for, making subsequent appointments of this kind, particularly on the disputed parts, of the Eastern Shore, that is to say in the neighbourhood of Virginia, and on the borders of the Delaware:¾ Authorities much more extensive than the mere granting of Warrants     (m) The Commanders of Counties were officers invested with very extensive powers, rendered necessary, it is presumed, by the circum- stances of turbulence and insubordination which attended the settlement of the Colony. They were in a word the chief officers both in military and civil affairs, not excepting judicial proceedings. The Lieutenants of counties, though of inferiour authority, take their origin probably from these establishments. Source: John Kilty. Land Holder's Assistant and Land Office Guide. Baltimore: G. Dobbin & Murphy, 1808. MSA L 25529.