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Sioussat's The English Statutes in Maryland, 1903
Volume 195, Page 14   View pdf image (33K)
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14 The English Statutes in Maryland. [478
its right of initiative, and passed acts for the Province, such
legislation never amounted to a complete and inclusive code."
These provincial acts were often negatived by the Proprietor,
and in time the Assembly—and especially the Lower House—
claimed for Maryland the extension to the Province of not
only the common law of England, but also the statute law of
the mother country, in cases where no specific law of the Prov-
ince applied. The former claim was before long admitted by
the Proprietor;" and the common law, so far as applicable
and unmodified, became a recognized part of the law of Mary-
land. The demand as to the statutes, however, was denied.
While the statutory doctrine was thus uncertain, the com-
missions issued to the judges were. understood—at least, in
after years—to refer to the Laws of England, or the Laws
and Statutes of England, as supplying the deficiencies of
the Province, laws.14 The difficulty was that these judges
were proprietary officers, over whom the Assembly had little
control, and that they might use their discretion arbitrarily.
That this was not an imaginary danger is shown by the action
of the Governor in 1677. when he declared that an Act
of Parliament against nuncupative wills was in full force in
Maryland,15 while in Fendall"s trial the English law of treason
was applied." Such measures as these were regarded by the
Assembly as legislation without their consent; and in the
expanded statement of grievances issued by the Protestant
party in the Revolution we find these charges against the Pro-
prietor emphasized:
Making laws without the consent of the Assembly and extending
them to the estates of the inhabitants.
12 Maryland Archives. I. Ass. Pro. passim. Steiner, Maryland's
First Courts. American Historical Association Report, 1901, Vol.
I, p. 222.
13 McMahon. Historical View, pp. 113-116.
Reinsch. P. S. English Common Law in the Early American
Colonies. Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 31 [1899].
14 McMahon, p. 113. See also the documents referred to below.
15 Sparks. Causes of the Maryland Revolution of 1688 [in Johns
Hopkins University Studies, Series XIV.]. p. 75, citing Lib. R R.,
158.
16 Ibid. p. 86. citing III. Ass. Pro., pp. 313, 330, 332.

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Sioussat's The English Statutes in Maryland, 1903
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