Maryland Laws Printed in Philadelphia and London

the Church and the Clergy', Religion and Learning, published in London in
1721, has served a useful purpose to the historians of two centuries as a
dependable and direct guide to the matters of which it treats. It contains
thirty-one acts at large which were in force in Maryland at the time of its
publication. For the greater part, Nicholas Trott, its editor,¹ used the Jones-
Bradford edition in compiling his section of Maryland religious enactments,
giving in addition, however, marginal references to the Reading editions of
1700 and 1707. Useful to the church historian of today, his collection, at
the time of its publication, must have been of particular value in England,
as well as in those American colonies where the Church of England had
been by law established.

As has been said, the foregoing notices of works of Maryland law, printed
beyond the limits of the Province, have no direct bearing on the story of
the Maryland press, but as these works occupy an important position in
the legal bibliography of the colony it is believed that a description of the
circumstances of their publication should find place in this narrative.

¹ Nicholas Trott was one of the most interesting figures in the colonial panorama. Emigrating to South Caro-
lina in 1698, he became chief justice in 1702 and held that office until the anti-proprietary revolution of 1719, a
revolution precipitated largely by his own injustice and tyranny. It has been said that "However unscrupulous
as a politician, corrupt and tyrannical as a judge, Trott was a profound lawyer, a scholar of great learning, and
a most laborious and indefatigable worker." It might be added that he was a devout Churchman and deeply
read in theology and the Holy Scriptures. In 1736 he published a codification of the laws of South Carolina which
has place as one of the most remarkable legal productions of colonial America, and which, printed by Lewis
Timothy of Charleston, vies with any work of the first half of the century in typographical excellence. At the
time of Trott's death in 1740, he was engaged upon an "Explication of the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament."
One of his most unpleasant habits was that of further distressing those whom he had condemned to death by
addressing to them religious homilies. His remarks to the pirate, Captain Stede Bonnet, remain as the record of
his remarkable personality and as the fitting conclusion of one of the most dramatic criminal trials of the colonial
era. For a good account of Judge Trott, see McCrady, Edward, The History of South Carolina under the Proprie-
tary Government, 1670-1719. N. Y. 1897, passim.

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