36 SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT

Mary's County. We received Will Books dated from 1658 to 1791, one
of which also contains Accounts from 1674 to 1720. Unfortunately, many
of the other probate records of the County have been lost, including all
the early papers. Presumably they were burned in the fire of 1831 which
destroyed all of the early records of the Clerk of Court. Without much
question, this was the most serious loss of county records in Maryland, as
St. Mary's is the county where the first settlement was made. The early
volume records of the Caroline County Register of Wills, like the original
papers which had been previously transferred, contain numerous entries
dating much earlier than 1773, the date when the County was erected.
The explanation for this is that the entries relate to inhabitants of Dor'
Chester who resided in that part of the County which later became part
of Caroline.

At the beginning of the year, our program of bringing in the county
land records dating before 1788 and replacing them with photostat copies
was complete, except for Caroline and Harford Counties. However, a
beginning has been made in each county. Liber A of the Caroline County
Land Records proved to be especially valuable, containing as it did Revo-
lutionary Oaths of Fidelity and the Census of 1778 for three of the five
Hundreds of the County. The volumes received from the Annapolis City
Treasurer are important in that they help fill gaps in the records already
here.

Just before Governor Lane left office, he decided, at the suggestion
of the Archivist, to leave all his public papers and correspondence in the
custody of the State, taking with him only items of purely personal inter-
est. In doing so he followed the lead of his predecessor, Governor Herbert
R. O'Conor. It is to be hoped that they have established a precedent for
future governors. The records of the first biennium of Governor Lane's
administration have already been transferred; the second biennium will
follow when it is no longer needed by the present administration.

The most noteworthy of the materials received from private sources
are the Booth Papers, deposited by Mrs. William Borden Cobb. The
Reverend Bartholomew Booth conducted a school in Frederick County
before and during the Revolution. One fascinating item in -the collection
is a letter written by Benedict Arnold on May 25, 1779, when he was
actively engaged in traitorous correspondence with the British although
his treachery was not detected until September 1780. It is evident that in