at annapolis before revolution 31

lofts housed, in one part, the records of the Gov-
ernor and Council, and in the other part, papers
transmitted from the collectors and naval officers
of the province.¹⁴ Annapolis, first settled in 1649,
was in 1695 a group of forty houses, with not over
one hundred and fifty residents.¹⁵ Sessions of the
Court of Appeals during the provincial period
opened ordinarily at 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning.
And one morning in May, 1696, a Court of Dele-
gates met at 6 o'clock.

The first case at the May term, 1695, heard on
May 17, was that of Joseph Chew, Garnishee
of Alexander Chappell v.Thomas Tench, on a writ
of error. The attorneys were Kenelm Cheseldyne
and Wiliam Dent, both of St. Mary's. And the
first decision by the court was on the nature or
identity of the tribunal resulting from the statute
and proceedings of the preceding year. In the
writ of error, Tench was directed to be and appear
before the Upper House of the next General As-
sembly, and his attorney moved to dismiss the writ
as improperly brought "for that this is a proper
court and is styled by the act of this Province to
be the Governor and Council for Hearing Appeals
and Writs of Error, and therefore no Upper
House." Even thus early in the history of the
court the judges plied counsel with questions.
The record continues:

His Excellency asks whether the Governor and Council in
assembly is not the Upper House of the assembly, who do say
that it is so accounted. Then his Excellency asked whether the
Governor and Council in assembly be a distinct court from the
Governor and Council of the Upper House and whether they

14. Act 1697, c. 6.

15. Riley, Removal of the Capital of Maryland, 159.