OF COLONIAL MARYLAND 41

vises, observations and queries about land, accounts, instructions,
abstracts of land records, lists of resurveys, escheats, insolvencies,
disclaimers and arrears. With the exception of the debt books and
rent rolls and a small collection of papers at the Maryland Hall of
Records, these have not been preserved by the Land Office.

The above comprehensive list of books and papers relating to rent
rolls on the Eastern Shore suggests that a comparison of Eastern
and Western Shore methods of land administration might be a
fruitful one. It seems to me that this list is indicative of a highly
developed efficiency in keeping the records that is not matched on
the Western Shore. It will be remembered that from an early
date there were two Receivers General, one for each shore, and that
in 1733 a rent-roll keeper was specifically appointed for each shore.
Apparently each had considerable latitude in the methods used
for collecting quit rents and keeping rent rolls. Mention has al-
ready been made of the regularity of additional rent roll entries
in Eastern Shore rent rolls after 1733 in contrast to the uneven
and rather haphazard system in the Western Shore books before
1768. This and the fact that the debt books appear on the Eastern
Shore twenty years ahead of the Western Shore might be attributed
to a more efficient, resourceful and methodical Eastern Shore rent-
roll keeper. Finally, the existence of Revenue Office copies⁶³—
duplicate copies—of certain rolls of the Western Shore only may
be significant. Possibly it was intended to have copies made of
the rent roll books of both shores but only done for the Western
Shore books. Perhaps it was not found necessary to copy the
Eastern Shore rolls. At any rate, the relatively worse state of
Western Shore rent rolls is seen from the following observation
in the Minutes of the Board of Revenue for Feb. 23, 1774:

..... It appearing that the Rentals of the Western Shore was
replete with Errors having been kept in a confused State for
many years and part of them transcribed by the late Rent Roll
Keeper without correcting the same, The Board was informed
thereof & order that they be, for the present rectified as often
as they shall occur, until a method can be adopted whereby the
present Rent Roll Keeper and Farmers of Quit Rents may be
enabled to form them on a more regular Plan..... ⁶⁴

⁶³ Cf. Libers 14, 17, 19, 20, 24, 27, 33, 39 and 40 of the Rent Rolls series.
⁶⁴ Arch. Md., XXXII, 474.