" Warrant so by you signed to be done by my order and " appointment, &c"     Council Book¾H H. fol. 292. ¾     Thomas Binkes represents by Petition to the Governor that he has rights due to him for five hundred and fifty acres of land according to his Lordship's Conditions of Plantation for transporting eleven persons, therein named, into the Province to inhabit, but that he " cannot make probate " thereof by Oath in usual form,"¾prays therefore that upon his giving Bond into the Secretary's Office, that he never made use thereof he may have the benefit of the said rights. The following is the answer endorsed on his Petition.         " Mr. Secretary Calvert,     " Provided, that Thomas Binkes of Calvert County do " give good security to the Lord Proprietary of this Province " that the rights of the within-mentioned persons were never " yet disposed of, and do nominate the Ship's names and the " Commander in which they were imported, the year and " day of the month when imported, and that they were " imported into the Province at his own proper charges and for " his own account or were legally assigned to him ¾¾¾ " to the property of their rights for land, and that they " served their full time of service in Maryland, so that any time " the contrary can be proved the bond to be forfeited, then " you are hereby ordered to give him a Warrant for rights " of land due as in the Petition mentioned without further " proof: Given under my hand the seven and twentieth day " of May, one thousand six hundred seventy seven.                                         "THOMAS NOTLEY."         LIBER, No. 20, fol. 1.     A bond is accordingly given in the penalty of ten thousand pounds of Tobacco to be forfeited if the said Binkes hath already made use of or assigned any of the aforesaid rights. ¾     The assignment of rights, of which various instances have been shewn in the entries just selected from the records, must necessarily have been a practice of frequent occurrence, as land rights formed, excepting (n) tobacco, the most current instrument of traffic among the colonists. These assignments were so numerous as to lead to a full belief that there must have been books subsidiary to those of general record, for the     (n) There appears to have been very little money in the Province. Tobacco became immediately the staple commodity, and at the same time the medium of all contracts, payments, &c. Paper currencies were not resorted to until at a very late period.¾A coinage was attempted by the proprietary in England but does not seem to have been prosecuted to any useful effect. Source: John Kilty. Land Holder's Assistant and Land Office Guide. Baltimore: G. Dobbin & Murphy, 1808. MSA L 25529.