28 TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT

at the local level. Also of interest, are the Levy Lists and Duplicate
Assessment Lists which are now nearly complete for the first half of
the nineteenth century, and which offer some insight in county adminis-
tration at this time.

Further insight is furnished by a small paper-backed volume which
contains the Proceedings of the Commissioners of the Tax for the
years 1786-1797. Beginning in 1777, the early assessment acts adopted
for support of the newly established State Government included pro-
vision for the appointment of five Commissioners of the Tax in each
county, who had the important responsibility of supervising the assess-
ment of property within their respective counties. By 1851, the Com-
missioners had been abolished in each county and their responsibilities
transferred to the County Commissioners. Only a scattered few of the
records created by the Commissioners of the Tax have survived for
other counties. The Kent volume is the earliest we have found.

The volume of Proceedings of the Commissioners of the Tax
received from the Register of Wills of St. Mary's County which is of a
later date contains entries that are mainly routine, but it is interesting
to observe that in 1815, William Smith was allowed to deduct from his
total assessment the value of a slave "gone to the enemy" and "3 horses
taken by the enemy." The logical assumption is that "the enemy" were
the British on their way up the Potomac to burn Washington in 1814.
A flyleaf notation on the Tobacco Inspection Record, 1811-1832, indi-
cates that it contains a "Record of the Proceedings of the Justices of
the Levy Court under the [Tobacco] Inspection Law." Although both
of the above volumes were in the office of the Register of Wills, they
must be considered records of the County Commissioners who were the
legal successors of the agencies that created them.

Sizable quantities of original records were also added to holdings
previously received from the Offices of the Registers of Wills of Cecil
and Queen Anne's Counties. About 250 reels of microfilm containing
copies of the Montgomery County Land Records were received from
the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court and our operator micro-
filmed the Land Records of St. Mary's and Somerset Counties. This com-
pletes our part of this program (see County Land Records Project).

We have resumed filming the key records of the registers of wills.
The Wills and Orphans' Court Proceedings were done about ten years
ago. They are being brought up to date and the Inventories and Ad-