512                           THE COUNTIES OF MARYLAND

1637-8 (Md. Arch., 1: 361; 3: 62). The establishment of the shrievalty
usually implies the existence of a county and this date has been adopted
as the date of erection of Kent County. There is, however, among the
Maryland archives (Md. Arch., 1: 55) a copy of a law which was intro-
duced in the Assembly on the 25th of the same month and subsequently
engrossed on March 8, succeeding, which calls for the erection of the
Isle of Kent into a hundred of St. Mary's County. The text of the law
which, however, was never passed (Md. Arch., 1: 39) runs as follows:

" Be it Enacted By the Lord Proprietary of this Province of and with the
advice and approbation of the same that the Island commonly called the Isle
of Kent shall be erected into a hundred & shall be within the County of St.
Maries (untill another County shall be erected of the Eastern shoare and no
longer) and shall be called by the name of Kent hundred....."

It is interesting to note from these records the indefiniteness of the
county idea as held in Maryland at this time. Two years later, in
October, 1640, the summons to the Assembly does not refer to the Isle
of Kent as a hundred but the summons is addressed to its Commander
(Md. Arch., 1:87). In the commission appointing Eichard Thompson
and William Luddington commissioners on the 2d of August, 1642 (Md.
Arch., 3:105), the territory is spoken of as the "Isle and County of
Kent." This is apparently the first definite calling of Kent County as
such. At this date, also, a county court was established.

From its earliest recognition Kent County appears to have been
analogous to St. Mary's County, the one representing the settlements
on the Eastern Shore, the other on the Western. No changes were
made upon the Western Shore until the erection of Anne Arundel
County in 1650 and none on the Eastern Shore until the erection
of Baltimore County in 1659. In neither instance were territorial limits
assigned to the counties until the subsequent establishment of con-
tiguous jurisdictions.

Prior to the establishment of Baltimore County in 1659 and Talbot
County in 1662, the scattered inhabitants along the Eastern Shore of
the Bay apparently transacted their business either at Kent Island or
at St. Mary's City. With the erection of these new counties the juris-
diction of Kent appears to have been limited to that part of the Eastern
Shore about Eastern Bay, while Talbot County exercised jurisdiction