OF COLONIAL MARYLAND 19

thing pertaining to title to land, and over the collection of the
revenue arising thereon. ¹⁸

As a result of the Protestant Revolution of 1688 in England after
which Maryland became a crown colony, the Land Office was closed
from 1689 to 1694, but its business was to a large extent taken
care of nevertheless by Henry Darnall, the proprietor's cousin and
his agent. In 1695 Darnall had conferred on him, in as far as the
Proprietor was able to do so, all the powers formerly vested in the
Land Council¹⁹ and after Darnall's death this power continued to
be vested in one person, the Agent, Charles Carroll.

The interval from 1689 to 1715 during which Maryland was a
crown colony is especially interesting for the history of the Land
Office. The question of the private (i. e. the Lord Proprietor) or
public nature of this agency developed into a major issue. Under
the royal government the Governor and Council, the Secretary and
the Assembly aligned themselves against the Lord Proprietor, his
agent and solicitor and assumed many of the rights formerly vested
in the Land Council, claiming public rather than private right to
settlement of judicial questions relating to title, custody of the
record of titles and some control over surveying. About the only
rights acknowledged as private and left to the Proprietor were those
necessary for securing his legitimate revenue, which from the start
the crown had not failed to guarantee him. In effect then, during
this period the Land Office was managed by the Royal Governor and
Council and more specifically, the Secretary, while the best Lord
Baltimore could do was depend on what his agents could achieve
in the way of upholding his claims.

None of the subsequent Agents ever brought to their office the
power and diligence that Darnall and Carroll had and after the
restoration of the Lord Proprietor's rights in 1715, although this
office continued, the chief power came to be centered in that of the
Land Office Judges newly created at that time. Philemon Lloyd,
in 1715, was the first to assume this title. According to the com-
mission received by the second holder of this office the incumbent
was constituted "Judge and Register in and of the land office, with
full power to hear, judge, and determine in land affairs... accord-
ing to Right, Reason and Good Conscience, and the several instruc-
tions and orders which he should from time to time receive from

¹⁸ Mereness, p. 60.
¹⁹ Kilty, p. 127-8.