154 court of appeals of maryland

pointed as clerk Richard W. Gill, who had been
clerk of the old court on the Western Shore since
1836. Robert J. Brent presented a certificate of
his appointment to take charge as attorney of all
state cases in the court, there being no Attorney
General provided for under the constitution of
1851.

Judge Mason removed his actual residence
from Washington County to Annapolis, and was
the first judge of the court to do so. The Gen-
eral Assembly at its first session under the consti-
tution, in 1852, passed an act, chapter 82, enabling
the judges to dwell in Annapolis and to retain
their legal residences in their judicial districts at
the same time, and the provision is still on the
statute books as section 32 of Article 26 of the
state code. Judge Mason bought and occupied
what is generally known as the Ogle House,
from its builder in the provincial period, at
King George Street and College Avenue. It had
been the residence of William Cooke, and again
that of Thomas G. Pratt, once Governor.

At the same session of 1852, the Assembly fixed
the salaries of all the judges of the court at $2500,
the amount which the Chief Judge had been
receiving since 1834.

Thus the experiment with an elected judiciary
was begun in Maryland. Chief Judge LeGrand
was then a man of only thirty-seven years, but he
had done well on the trial bench in Baltimore
during seven years previously, and done well,
indeed, contrary to general expectations. Born in
1814, he had become active in Democratic poli-
tics in his twenties. He was a good speaker,