ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 27

of Wills' office are the Wills. The other papers had long ago been
placed in large wooden boxes and stored in a little-used room in the
basement of the courthouse. The first installment of these papers has
already been transfered and is listed below. In view of the poor con-
ditions under which the papers are stored, we shall probably transfer
all of them to the Hall of Records, even though they date much later
than the papers we usually receive.

Another large quantity of probate papers was brought in from
the office of the Register of Wills of Caroline County. In this case
all papers through 1830 were transferred. Included in the collection
were several bundles dating much earlier than 1773, the date of for-
mation of Caroline County. The explanation of this apparent anach-
ronism is that these papers relate to the estates of persons who lived
in that section of Dorchester County which later became part of Caro-
line. Had these papers not been sent to Caroline, they would in all
probability have been destroyed along with all the rest of the probate
records of Dorchester County in the courthouse fire of 1851.

The first volume of Washington County Wills likewise contains
wills which antedate the establishment of the County. These are wills
of residents of the part of Frederick County that became Washington
County.

Among the papers transferred from the Register of Wills' office
of Anne Arundel County are a number of discharge papers of Revo-
lutionary War soldiers. These discharges are valuable as proofs of
service of the men involved.

The most interesting of the records received from State agencies
are the Journals and Ledgers relating to Emissions of Bills of Credit
obtained from the State Treasurer. Several such volumes had pre-
viously Seen transferred, and we had assumed that everything else
had been lost. Students of the paper currency situation in Maryland
during the colonial and revolutionary periods should find these volumes
very helpful.

The frequent demands for photocopies of recent Acts of the Gen-
eral Assembly has led to a further revision of policy in this respect,
WThereas the Court of Appeals formerly retained the Acts of the most
recent session of the Assembly, it has now been decided that the