ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 31

1928. It is the earliest Methodist record we have yet received. The
Chapel was located in Dorchester Circuit, which was organized in 1780,
and it is the second oldest in the history of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. The charter and deed of the Chapel property are recorded in
this volume.

Further light on the early history of Methodism is shed by the
proceedings of the Convention of Reformers of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, held in Baltimore in 1827. The Reformers were concerned
about certain phases of the organization of the Methodist Episcopal
Church and, eventually, they established the Methodist Protestant
Church.

As in the past, however, most of the records acquired were those
of Protestant Episcopal congregations. The records of All Saints' Parish
in Frederick County have been extraordinarily well preserved. The
Parish Register covers over 200 years, the only gap occurring during and
after the Revolution when the Parish Church was inactive.

Civil War "buffs" will find several of the items received from
private sources of particular interest. Through the courtesy of Senator
William S. James of Harford County, we were permitted to make
photocopies of a poignant letter from Mary A. Ash to her brother,
Amos, who was going off to war, and another letter written by Private
Amos Dunbar to his aunt, in which he describes the tedium and dis-
comfort of war; although it was occasionally enlivened by bursts of
action such as the destruction of the Cumberland and the Congress by
the Merrimac, which Dunbar witnessed while in camp at Newport
News. Daily accounts of the last days of the War may be read in the
issues of The New York Herald that were deposited by the Reverend
and Mrs. Leslie L. Fairfield.

The entries in the Ledger of West and Wilmot, 1774-1781, dis-
close that these merchants dealt with Charles Willson Peale, Anne
Catherine Green, Gabriel Duvall and other prominent residents of
Annapolis. The Ledger was deposited by Mr. and Mrs. Seeley T.
Feldmeyer.

A number of items were added to our collection of Bible records.
Photostatic copies were made of entries relating to the Bowen, Buckler,