26 TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT

County (1685-190 3), Chris t Church Parish in Calvert Coun ty (1685-1902)
and St. Peter's Parish in Talbot County (1681-1904). St. Peter's also is
represented by an almost unbroken series of vestry minutes (1708-1938) as
are St. Paul's Parish in Queen Anne's County (1694-1940) and All Faith
Parish in St. Mary's County (1693-1892).

The earliest records received however were the Quaker records which
were filmed through the cooperation of Walter W. Clagett, Esquire, custodian
of the records, and Miss Ruth Startt, Register of Wills of Talbot County, in
whose vaults the original records are stored. Among them are three remarkable
volumes containing entries of births, marriages and deaths respectively, each
of which extends from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries with entries
dated as early as 1664.

As usual, a number of interesting and unusual items were received from
private sources. An exciting exchange of letters, which eventually led to a duel
between Dr. Dennis Claude and Captain Winfield Scott in 1809, is included
among the papers deposited by Mrs. George S. Cobb, a descendant of Dr.
Claude.

A small manuscript volume containing the law notes of Samuel Chase
was presented to us by Mrs. Frederick S. Coale and Mrs. John W. Clarke in
behalf of their late husband and father, Frederick Skipwith Coale, a great-
grandson of Chase.

The Reverend Thomas F. Biddle, O.S.A., not only arranged for us to get
a microfilm copy of his thesis, entitled "Historical Geography of Bladensburg,
Maryland," but he also gave us a microfilm copy of the Record Book of the
Town of Bladensburg, 1742-1836. The original is now privately owned and
it was located by Mr. Biddle while he was writing his thesis. Many of our early
municipal records have been lost, so we were particularly glad to discover
that this one still exists and to acquire a copy.

The largest acquisition of private documents was the Waters-White Col-
lection, numbering over two hundred items, which was deposited by Mr.
William Z. White. As the title indicates, many items in the collection relate
to the Waters family, such as an affidavit made before the Council of Mary-
land, March 21, 1778, that John Waters of Anne Arundel County had taken
the Oath of Fidelity, and a license issued in 1798 by the Supervisor of the
Revenue allowing Richard Waters to operate a still. Among other miscellane-
ous materials are three passes issued during the Civil War by Drake deKay,
who signed his name in large bold letters so that his illiterate sentries could
recognize his signature even though they could not read it; a diary kept by
Richard Waters from 1793 to 1808; and twenty-two items of paper money,
mostly Confederate. A letter from Edward Karthaus in Amsterdam to Zebu-