INTRODUCTION

usually list half brothers, unless they were legislators, or half sisters, unless they married
legislators.

Under MARRIED, the name or names of a legislator's wife or wives are in chronological
sequence. Because marriage into a politically influential family began or greatly enhanced many
legislative careers, the same criteria that applied to FAMILY BACKGROUND determined which of
the wife's relations merited inclusion.

The element CHILDREN encompasses a chronological ordering by sex of the legislator's
progeny. Last names are given only for male offspring who became legislators, and for illegitimate
sons and daughters.

Most of the categories in the element PRIVATE CAREER are self-explanatory. Caution should
be exercised in interpreting titles in SOCIAL STATUS AND ACTIVITIES because they no longer bore
the same social connotation after the mid-eighteenth century as in the first hundred years of
settlement. Both this category and OCCUPATIONAL PROFILE are chronological, with dates noted
where possible. No date appears, however, if a man held one occupation throughout his adult
career. The occupational entry "'officeholder" signifies that at least a portion of the legislators
income derived from a public office in which he performed the duties of the post. The term
"placeman" means that a man secured one or more lucrative positions in the colonial bureaucracy
through the intercession of the governor, the proprietor, or, during the period of crown rule, the
monarch. Before 1692, Catholics as well as Protestants could hold office in Maryland. From that
year until 1774, when the first extralegal convention met, only Protestants who took an oath of
office could serve in the legislature. Therefore, under RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION, legislators who
served between 1692 and 1774 for whom we cannot find definite proof of church membership
carry the designation "probably Protestant." Under the constitution of 1776 discrimination
abated, with Catholics, Quakers, and other religious groups again permitted to participate in
public life.

Within the element PUBLIC CAREER the category LEGISLATIVE SERVICE is chronological
according to each assembly or convention a legislator attended. Committee service, along with
any necessary explanatory information, is in parentheses after the relevant assembly or
convention. MILITARY SERVICE is by no means comprehensive for many legislators, because the
information came incidentally during the process of identification, rather than through a concerted
attempt to search all military-related records. OUT OF COLONY/STATE SERVICE is also not
complete, because we did not always have the resources to trace a man's public career outside of
Maryland.

The crucial category STANDS ON PUBLIC/PRIVATE ISSUES is used sparingly in most
biographies of eighteenth-century legislators, and then chiefly for matters of a private nature. The
quantitative analysis of legislative behavior in progress will determine more sharply than
presently possible what constituted public issues for these men and will be a focus of the
subsequent monographs.

The appraisal of total personal property for the element WEALTH DURING LIFETIME was
possible only for a fraction of the legislators. Nonetheless, for specific points in time considerable
information did accrue for many men from the few assessment and census lists that survive as well
as from extant records of mortgages, inheritances, insolvencies, and bankruptcies.

Because of the abundance of documentation, a much greater degree of precision proved
feasible in computing a legislators interest in land, the prerequisite of social, economic, and
political status in early America. In many cases research not only determined the amount,
geographical distribution, and method of acquisition of real property at first election but also
charted any significant changes between the beginning of a legislative career and death.