422                           THE COUNTIES OF MARYLAND

The arrangement in the table brings out in broad lines the general
order of settlement within the State. First there comes St. Mary's
County, representing the lonely settlement on the Potomac, then that of
Kent, indicating the division of the State into an eastern and a western
shore. Following this the western shore is divided into units suitable
to local government, Anne Arundel representing the Puritans on the
Severn, Calvert that on the Patuxent, and Charles that on the Potomac
above St. Mary's. Baltimore County with its wide extent at the time
of its formation, included portions of the eastern and western shores
and represented the settlements at the head of the Chesapeake. Fol-
lowing its establishment came the preliminary division of the eastern
shore, the settlements here being grouped by the necks of land between
the dominant rivers rather than by the contiguity of the opposite sides
of a single river as was the case on the western shore. Subsequent to the
erection of Prince George's County at the close of the seventeenth cen-
tury, the erection of new counties has been in the nature of the subdivis-
ion of the territory assigned to some earlier-formed county, the subdi-
vision being required by increase in population and knowledge regarding
the given territory.

METHOD OF ERECTING COUNTIES.

The following lists arranged according to the methods employed in
erecting the several counties serve as an interesting indication of the
irregularities of method pursued. The Governor, usually with the
assent of the Council and frequently at the instigation of the Proprie-
tary, apparently ordered the erection of the following counties:

St. Mary's.¹                                                     Charles.

Kent.                                                              Somerset.

Charles (old).                                                Durham.

Calvert.                                                          Worcester (old).

In the foregoing cases notice of the erection of the various counties

¹ The first evidence of these several counties is as follows:

St. Mary's.......Commission issued to sheriff June 29, 1637. Md. Arch.,

3: 61.
Temporarily called Potomac 1654-1658.