April 1865. It is impossible to explain now how they got to Richmond, but if they were taken
by some soldier who wanted them to pad his coat, stanch his wounds or clean his gun, this
same soldier may have been responsible for the other losses in this volume, including the first
sixty-six pages.⁶ Perhaps they may turn up as did those two pages, but it is more than likely
that they were lost with Richmond.

While the bound series of the register of wills and clerk of the court have come down to
us with little loss, the same cannot be said for the loose papers which were for the most part
burned in 1892. The other records of the county, administrative and fiscal, which must have
been in the courthouse at the time of the fire, appear also to have been a total loss.

Note

Dr. Henry Chandlee Forman, in a searching review of the first volume of this work (Md.
Hist. Mag., LV, pp. 246-248) has contributed some especially valuable comment on Charles
County. He is perfectly correct in pointing out that the courthouse of 1675 which is shown on
p. 62 was clapboard and not brick. He pointed out also that I had stated it was clapboard on
p. 67. There is no satisfactory explanation for an error of this kind. It was an early com-
mission to the artist and it was not properly checked when the book went to press three or
four years later. Dr. Forman also points out that the leaning chimney could not stand without
defying gravity. This is true but all that was intended was an enlargement of the sketch in the
surveyor's plat given on p. 64. Perhaps this should have been made clear.

Circuit Court

LAND AND COURT RECORDS, 1658-1786. Missing: Land Records, 1699-1702; Court Rec-
ords, 1695, 1716, 1740, 1751, discontinued after 1780. Volumes dated 1658-98, 1710-13
contain both Land and Court Records; otherwise records are entered in separate volumes,
but numbered as a single series. Also includes Probate Records, 1689-92; Vital Records,
1654-1706; Attachments, Writs, Orders, etc., 1687; Land Commissions, 1716-21; Laws in
Force in 1677 and 1688 and Laws Passed in 1692. C.H. 1658-1786 (does not include Court
Records, 1696-1710, 1711-80). H.R. 1658-1786; 1658-1949, microfilm.

INDEX TO COURT AND LAND RECORDS, 1658-1722. Liber index. H.R.

LAND RECORDS, 1786-1810, 1813--. Original volumes for 1810-13, which are missing, have
been replaced by photocopies of the abstracts of the land records contained in these
volumes. Most volumes indexed. C.H. 1786--. L.O. 1949--, microfilm. H.R. 1786-90; 1786-
1949, microfilm.

ABSTRACTS OF LAND RECORDS, 1810-14. Photocopies of abstracts of land records in
Liber I.E. No. 9 and Liber I.E. No. 10. The original volumes are missing from the Land
Records. C.H.

INDEX TO LAND RECORDS, 1658-1937. Campbell. C.H. 1658-1937. L.O. 1658-1937, micro-
film. H.R. 1658-1832; 1658-1937, microfilm.

INDEX TO LAND RECORDS, 1935--. Cottco Universal. Grantors and grantees in separate
volumes. C.H. 1935--. L.O. 1935-48.

MORTGAGE RECORD, 1943--. Earlier mortgages in Land Records. Each volume indexed,
1943-56. C.H.

LAND COMMISSION RECORDS, 1838-85. Each volume indexed. C.H.

⁶ Louis Dow Scisco, "Colonial Records of Charles County," Md.
Hist. Mag.. XXI, pp. 261-270.

98