26 LAND OFFICE RECORDS

usuall feasts in the year.... by even and equall Portions the
Rent of Six Shillings 'Sterling.... or the full value thereof in
such comodities as we.... shall accept in discharge thereof...
Given at Saint Maries under our great Seal of our sd Province
of Maryland the Six and twentieth day of September in the
three and thirtieth Year of our dominion over our sd Province
of Maryland Annoq Domi One Thousand Six hundred Sixty
three Wittness our dear Son and heir Charles Calvert Esq our
Lieut. Generall of our sd Province of Maryland. ³⁴

The foregoing represent the chief basic types of land records.
There are, however, many others that developed out of these primary
ones or are variations of them. One of the early developments is the
assignment or transfer of rights, warrants, certificates and even of
patents from one person to another. For a while—before the law
put a stop to it—patents were transferred conveying complete title
in land from one person to another without a deed indented or the
other ordinary formalities. The reverse side of the patent was
simply endorsed and sometimes the same patent might be endorsed
with several successive assignments. ³⁵ Warrants and certificates
were regularly assigned by making and acknowledging the assign-
ment before the Secretary and having him enter it on records. The
assignments of rights to land were so numerous as to lead Kilty to
the belief that there must have been books subsidiary to those of
general record for the purpose of entering the rights in a short form
in succession as they were exhibited. ³⁶ If it is borne in mind that
with the exception of tobacco, land rights constituted almost the
only medium of exchange among the early colonists, this practice
of assignment is the more readily understandable.

Two main types of warrants have already been observed but there
are three or four other important types that should be mentioned,
namely, warrants of resurvey and three variations thereof—escheat,
proclamation, and surplus warrants. Warrants of resurvey were
the natural outgrowth of incorrect original surveys and the desire
for precise information as to the boundaries of one's land. All during
the proprietary period these warrants were not generally granted as
a matter of right and were preceded by petitions stating the object
of the application for resurvey. This fact, plus the great number
of resurvey warrants upon the records, gives an indication of their

³⁴ Patents, Liber 8, p. 72.
⁸⁵ Kilty, p. 211.
³⁶ Ibid., pp. 77-8.