A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland

Be it Enacted by the Right Honourable the Lord Proprietary, by and with the Advice
and Consent of his Lordship's Governour, and the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly,
and the Authority of the same, That the Commissioners of the several County-courts of
this Province, are hereby impowered and directed to make an Allowance of Two Thousand
Pounds of Tobacco in the Levy to be laid for each respective County, next after this pres-
ent Session of Assembly; and that the said Two Thousand Pounds of Tobacco so to be al-
lowed and assessed as aforesaid, shall be collected by the Sheriff of each respective County,
and paid by him, free from all Charges of Collection, to the said William Parks, or his Order
for the Printing and Stitching, and Delivering a Copy of the Publick Laws, Speeches, and
answers made at this present Session of Assembly, to every Member of Assembly, and Com-
missioner of the Peace for the Time being, and a Copy of such Laws (bound in Leather) to
the Publick, and each House of Assembly, and to each County-court of this Province.

And be it further Enacted, by the Authority aforesaid, That the commissioners of each
County-court in this Province, during the Continuance of this Act, be and are hereby im-
powered and directed, at every Time of laying the Levy, in each respective County, after
the End of this present Session of Assembly, to allow the Quantity of Two Thousand Pounds
of Tobacco, Annually to the said William Parks, or his Order, for the Purposes aforesaid,
which the said Justices are hereby impowered to levy upon the Inhabitants of the several
Counties, with the Sheriffs Salary for Collection thereof.

And be it further Enacted, by the Authority aforesaid, That the Commissioners of each
Court of the respective Counties, who have not already paid and allowed to the said Wil-
liam Parks, the said Quantity of Two Thousand Pounds of Tobacco, for Printing the Laws
made at the Sessions of Assembly held in the Months of March and July as aforesaid, shall
be and are hereby impowered and directed to allow the said Two Thousand Pounds of To-
bacco to the said William Parks, in the Levy to be laid next after this present Session of
Assembly, over and above the Two Thousand Pounds of Tobacco to be allowed him as afore-
said, for this present Session of Assembly.

This Act to continue in Force until the Twenty First Day of March which shall be in
the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty Two.

This act expired five years later, and was continued by Chap. 1, March-
April 1732/33, Bacon's Laws of Maryland, for seven years, and a supplemen-
tary act was passed, Chap. 13, April-May, 1737, Bacon's Laws of Maryland,
by which as related in the foregoing narrative, Parks was taken to task for
certain duties neglected, and provision made to protect the Province against
loss by such neglect in the future. These acts are printed at large in the
printed acts of the sessions named (see bibliographical appendix). At the
time of passage of the "Supplementary Act" of 1737, the Upper House had
proposed a more severe penalization of Parks for his tardiness in printing
the acts than was later adopted, but the Lower House, because the existing
act prescribed no date of completion, interposed with milder suggestions
which were concurred in by the upper chamber and embodied in an act
wherein dates of delivery were named and penalties prescribed for failure
to observe them.

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