20 LAND OFFICE RECORDS

the proprietor relating thereto. "²⁰ Here it is to be observed that
the Judge takes over, along with his own title, that of Register.
Under the Judges of the Land Office the chief officials were the
Surveyor Generals (before the close of the 17th century it had
become customary to appoint a Surveyor General for each shore)
and the Examiner General. About the only duties of these officers
were the appointment of a Deputy Surveyor in each county and the
transmission of instructions and warrants to and from these dep-
uties. After 1764 two Judges were appointed for the Land Office
and this practice continued until the Revolution. ²¹

Such then, was the general organization of land administration
in Maryland up to the time of the Revolution. The most striking
feature of the development—its constant amplification and diversi-
fication— from the small nucleus of the "Governor and Comis-
sioners" to a large office with a number of different departments
was to be expected in a new and important agency growing up
in a new and important country.

RECORDS IMPLIED IN THE TITLE "COLONIAL LAND
OFFICE RECORDS"

Colonial Land Office records are those emanating from the Lord
Proprietor's Land Office after its inception in 1680 and kept previous
to that in the custody of the authorized director of land affairs.
With the exception of assignments they do not witness transactions
between two land-holders as conveyances do. They are agreements
between an individual and the Lord Proprietor pertaining to initial
granting or leasing of land or they are records of rent payments
to the Proprietor on his lands. Once an individual received title
to land from the Proprietor further transfers (unless the land
reverted to the Proprietor through escheat) were no longer recorded
in the Land Office, but in either the County Courts or the Provincial
Court. Thus a great body of what might at first thought he con-
sidered colonial Land Office records—the County and Provincial
Court deeds before 1776—does not fall within the scope of this

²⁰ Kilty, p. 269.

²¹ Gould, p. 14.