chapter III
after the revolution to 1805

HE changes of the Revolution of 1776 have
so engrossed attention that the fact of con-
tinuation of local, state institutions through
it has been much overlooked. There was no occa-
sion for great disturbances in the Maryland insti-
tutions, and few changes were made. After the
Revolution as before there were: a Governor and
Council, a General Assembly of two houses, a
Court of Appeals, a general trial court with only
the change in name necessitated by the disappear-
ance of the provincial status, a Chancellor and
Court of Chancery, a Court of Admiralty and the
several county courts. And there was still an At-
torney General, a Land Office, and other institu-
tions of familiar titles and duties. As will be seen,
the courts, and even the state itself, continued using
the seals of the proprietary government for years
after the Revolution. Only one court did the revo-
lutionists declare abolished at the time, and that
was the court of the Commissary General or Pre-
rogative Court at Annapolis, for probate of wills
and administration of estates. In the preamble to
the act of 1777, chapter 8, which inaugurated the
system of Orphans Courts, it was recited that "by
the form of government lately assented to by the
representatives of the freemen of this state, it is in-
tended that the office of Commissary-General
should be abolished"; and Harris and McHenry
noted the abolition of that office or court only,