24 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT

As the members of our Records Management staff survey the records of
various State and county agencies for the purpose of preparing retention
schedules, they often find records of archival value which are no longer needed
in the current operations of the office. These records are recommended for
transfer to the Hall of Records. Last year, for example, two volumes of Judg-
ments dating in the Seventeenth Century were discovered in the basement of
the Talbot County Courthouse. Similar surveys account for the miscellaneous
items received from the Register of Wills and the County Commissioners of
Talbot County. Our Records Management staff members have been especially
instructed to look for the proceedings of the Levy Court and County Com-
missioners when they are in the counties. Last year they brought in the pro-
ceedings for Somerset County. The absence of the Levy Court proceedings
before 1827 is not too surprising, but to discover that several volumes of the
Commissioner's proceedings, especially those dating in the Twentieth Century,
are missing is disappointing to say the least.

Among the numerous items transferred from the office of the Clerk of
the Circuit Court of Somerset County are 32 volumes of so-called "Judicial
Records" extending our holdings of this series from 1665 to 1848. Although
the title never varies, this unique series undergoes a complete metamorphosis.
The Seventeenth Century volumes are typical of the court proceedings of
any Maryland county of that period. Early in the Eighteenth Century, land
commissions begin to appear in the record. This is not unique although in
most counties land commissions were recorded in separate volumes. In 1818
certain chancery records relating to ownership of land began to be entered
in this series. From 1827 to 1848, the Judicial Records contain only land
commissions and those judgments and chancery records that relate to land
titles.

Included in the same transfer were the records of Washington Academy
which originated in 1767 as Somerset Academy. In 1779, it was incorporated
by act of assembly under the name of Washington Academy. It drew its
students and also the members of its board of trustees from Delaware and
Virginia as well as from Maryland. In 1872, it was integrated into the public
school system of Somerset County and eventually lost its independent status
and identity.

For all practical purposes we have now acquired all of the Protestant
Episcopal church records of the Diocese of Easton. It may well be, however,
that an occasional volume will turn up which has escaped our attention and
from time to time we shall be microfilming some of the current records.

In all, records were acquired from twenty-two separate parishes or
churches. Among them were the records of three of the original thirty parishes
created in 1694 under the act establishing the Church of England in Mary-
land. These are North Sassafras Parish in Cecil County, Shrewsbury Parish
in Kent County and Somerset Parish in Somerset County. Each of these
parishes has suffered some losses in its records, but, fortunately, most of them
have been preserved. We also acquired the records of Trinity Parish in Cecil