42 LAND OFFICE RECORDS

CUSTODIANSHIP

Although the foregoing five series are now and have been for
a long time in the custody of the Land Office, such was not always
the case. Patents and Warrants have, it is true, always been in
the custody of the Land Office. "Before the Revolution, Proprietary
leases were in the custody of the Secretary or the Agent until, in
1760, the Propretor ordered them deposited in the Land Office. ⁶⁵
Rent Rolls and Debt Books were successively in the custody of the
Secretary, the Agent and the Receiver General. After the Revolu-
tion the three latter series presumably fell into the custody of
the Western Shore Treasurer who by an Act of 1781 (ch. 20, section
4) was to "have the care and possession of all the debt books and
other papers relative to the revenue of the late proprietaries. "⁶⁶ The
Proprietary leases seem after this to have come successively into
the custody of the Intendant of the Revenue, the Auditor General
and the Clerk of the Council, for in 1829 books and papers of the
late Auditor General's office were transferred from the Clerk of
the Council to the Register of the Land Office of the Western
Shore, the latter being required to take charge of all books and
papers which were formerly kept in the Auditor General's office
relative to confiscated lands in the state sold by the Intendant of
the Revenue or those directly or indirectly connected with the Land
Office. ⁶⁷ Resolution No. 21 for the year 1828 specifically men-
tions "several Record Books which belonged to the office of the late
Auditor General in which are recorded a number of old leases of
lands in this state". These, included among the records and papers
given over to the Clerk of the Council by the Auditor General's
office when it was abolished, are authorized to be delivered by the
former to the Register of the Western Shore Land Office. Resolu-
tion No. 18 for the year 1832 notes that "there was deposited in
the Western Shore Land Office a small number of old leases from
the Lord Proprietor of certain individuals for lands lying in the
reserves of the State, and whereas the Register of the Land Office
was not directed.... to record said leases, they.... have have never
been recorded and as there are many persons deriving their whole
title to said lands by said leases it is important that they should be

⁶⁵ Ibid., IX, 403.
⁶⁶ Kilty, p. 307.
⁶⁷ Catalogue of Archival Material, Maryland Hall of Records, 1942, p. 63.