26 ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT

In Dorchester County the record situation proved less favorable.
All of the early records of the Register of Wills were lost in the
courthouse fire of 1851, and aside from an apparently complete Deed
series, only a few volumes of the Clerk's records for the period up to
1788 have been preserved. All of the material now existing has been
transferred to the Hall of Records, except about twenty volumes of
Land Records. These will be brought in as soon as we have re-
placed the land record volumes on hand with photocopies. An in-
teresting and unusual item received among the Dorchester records
is the ledger of Robert Morris, the father of the famous Revolu-
tionary financier. Its presence among the public records is ex-
plained by the fact that an unused portion in the back of the volume
was used as a Fee Book by the Clerk of Court from 1762 to 1763.

The last two volumes of Land Records to be obtained from the
Frederick County Clerk's Office were received early in the year and
the photocopying program for that County has now been completed.
Substantial progress was also made in the program for Charles
County. The Land Records are now present up to 1752. About
eight more volumes remain to be transferred from La Plata.

Of special interest among the State records received are the
Proceedings of the Executive Department from 1912 to 1924 when
the series was discontinued, bringing to an end a series which dates
back to 1637. It is now felt that modem systems of filing with em-
phasis on carbon copies of everything make such a record un-
necessary.

In former years, it was customary for the Court of Appeals to
retain the Engrossed Laws passed at the latest two meetings of the
General Assembly. Thus when some one wanted a photocopy of a
recent law, it was necessary to send a messenger to the Court of Ap-
peals to borrow the Act and later to return it. The demand for
photocopies necessitated many such trips last year. In order to
remedy this situation, it was decided that only the laws of the last
regular session be retained by the Court of Appeals. In accordance
with this decision, the laws of 1943 and the special session of 1944
were transferred to the Hall of Records.

Items belonging to the State continued to turn up in the vaults
of the Maryland Historical Society, which had custody of many of