As Lawrence Wroth points out in his introduction,
reprinted below, in 1929 the only known copy of A
Declaration of The Lord Baltemore's Plantation in
Mary-land was in the archives of the Catholic Arch-
diocese of Westminster at Westminster Cathedral, Lon-
don. In an effort to date the Houghton Manuscript of
the Maryland charter through watermarks (distinctive,
often unique, impressions in paper created by the manu-
facturer in the papermaking process), I sought permis-
sion to examine the Declaration only to find that it was
no longer there. How it was lost is not known, but today
all that remains in public hands is Wroth's facsimile edi-
tion, which itself exists in an edition of only one hun-
dred and twenty-five copies. Given its importance as the
earliest printed promotional tract relating to Maryland,
and its rarity today, it seemed only fitting to reprint the
rare Wroth facsimile as the second in the Maryland Hall
of Records 350th Anniversary Document Series with an
historical introduction on the genesis of the charter.

   Lawrence Wroth's contributions to the history of print-
ing and to the history of Maryland are truly impressive,
both in quantity and quality. If he had known of the
Houghton Manuscript of the charter and had had the
opportunity to examine it with all the known printed
versions of the charter, I have no doubt that he would
have revised his assessment of the Brown/Griswold/Jones
copies of the charter (see n. 1 of his introduction below),
assigning to them a later printing date instead of sug-
gesting that they could be first editions. As was sug-
gested in the introduction to the first pamphlet in this
series, there can be little question that the first printed