INTRODUCTION xxxvii

of the period covered by the Liber, receiving an allowance in the county levies of
1200 pounds of tobacco per annum. Upon his death Simon Nicholls assumed the po-
sition, taking the oaths appointed by act of Parliament at the August 1699 court.
Anthony Smart appears as drummer in two of the levies set forth in the Liber but
no drummer is listed in the third levy entered at the October 1699 court. These
officials never gain substance from the pages of the Liber. However, some evidence
of the part played by the crier appears from the fact that in the statutory schedules
of fees the crier received fees for swearing juries and witnesses, for special bail
ordered in court, for good behaviors ordered in court, and for clearing prisoners
by order of the court and proclamation. 47 Aside from the several levies, there is
only one mention of Joyce; a fine imposed for non-attendance at the November
1698 court, the fine being remitted upon presenting satisfactory reasons for his
absence. Reference to a bailiff appears in a 1699 statutory schedule of fees but the
office does not appear in the Liber. 48

The Liber contains a resolution, dated June 11, 1697, of the House of Delegates
that the minister or ministers resident within each county should attend at the
court-house and read prayer each morning during court sessions before the court
was called or the commissioners proceeded to any business, but there is no indica-
tion in the Liber that this resolution was observed. 49 That it was not a dead
letter appears from entries in the county court records of neighboring Charles
County showing allowances in the county levies of 80 pounds of tobacco per day
of attendance to George Tubman, the Anglican minister for Port Tobacco Parish
and perhaps other parishes in Charles County and for Piscattoway Parish in Prince
Georges. 50

Sheriff

The principal administrative officer of the county was the sheriff. As to this office,
Nicholson stated: "The Sheriff's being a place of profit is given to those who have
done his Majesty service in the House and to encourage others to do the same."
The first sheriff of Prince Georges County was Thomas Greenfield, appointed dur-
ing pleasure by Governor Nicholson by virtue of a commission dated April 22,
1696. This appointment disqualified Greenfield from continuing to sit as a mem-
ber of the House of Burgesses. Before taking office Greenfield was to take the oath
appointed by act of Parliament, instead of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy,
as also the oath of sheriff, subscribe to the Test and give bond for the due execu-
tion of the office of sheriff according to law. The dedimus potestatem and posse
comitatus of equal date were to remain in force during the continuance of the
commission. 51 In June 1697 new commissions were ordered to issue for each county
"Constituteing the present sherriff of the said Severall Counties with full power
to Act and be Continued in their respective Offices and places for the next Year

47. Infra 13-14, 53, 279, 522, 614; 13 MA 511; 22 id. 579. For the rationale employed in fixing
the crier's fees see 13 id. 308-09.

48. Infra 402; 22 MA 579.

49. Infra 214. See also 19 MA 532, 545, 582.

50. CCCR, Liber V, No. 1 (1696-98) 294; id., Liber X, No. 1 (1698-99) 246; Piscattoway Parish
Minutes, 1693 [4-179-t, 3; Weis, The Colonial Clergy of Maryland, Delaware and Georgia
67 (1950); Thompson, Early Maryland Clergy, 5 MHM 290 (1910); Rightmyer, The Character of
the Anglican Clergy of Colonial Maryland, 44 id. 229, 234, 246 (1949); Skirven, The First
Parishes of the Province of Maryland 132-36 (1923).

51. Infra 2-4; 19 MA 330; CSP, Col., 1696-97, No. 864. In 1694 Greenfield was a commissioner
and one of the coroners of Calvert County. He was commissioned a justice of the Provincial
Court c.1701; in 1707 he became a member of the Council. He died in 1715 leaving a large
estate.