BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. THE SOURCES

For present purposes we may distinguish three unequal classes of Mary-
land materials: Public records, private papers, and newspapers. The
public records we may again divide between those of Maryland and those
of British provenance. Both are well preserved and have been for many
years in process of publication.

With a few exceptions to be noted, all those Maryland public records
created prior to her ratification of the federal constitution, 28 April 1788,
and very many created after that date, are now housed in the Hall of
Records building at Annapolis and are there divided between the state
Land Office and the Hall of Records proper.

A Catalogue of Archival Material, Hall of Records (Hall of Records
Commission Publications, No. 2 [Annapolis, 1943]) listed the various
groups of holdings then in the latter depository. It is now to be supple-
mented by a series of finding aids for some of the groups mentioned in
the catalog. Two such works of interest for the colonial period have
appeared: Calendar of Maryland State Papers, No. 1, The Black Books
(Hall of Records Commission Publications, No. 1 [1943]) and Land
Office and Prerogative Court Records of Colonial Maryland (H. of R.
Com. Publications, No. 4 [1946]. These contain appropriate historical
data on the records and record offices of the province and state.

The Land Office houses the proprietary land records proper and two
series of court records. Only the former, consisting of Patents, Warrants,
Leases, Rent Rolls, and Debt Books, are described in the previously
mentioned inventory. (A score of other Rent Rolls are among the Calvert
Papers at the Maryland Historical Society. ) More useful for historical
purposes are the Chancery Record, 1668-1789 (16 v. ), and the Provincial
Court Record, 1658-1774 (23v. ). The one is a record of suits and
judgments in the High Court of Chancery, while the other comprises the
land record books of the Provincial Court. These latter contain also powers
of attorney, commissions, and oaths of office. The first four volumes of
this Provincial Court Record, with parts of four earlier miscellaneous
proprietary record books in the Hall of Records proper, have been pub--
lished to form the five volumes of Proceedings of the Provincial Court,
1637-1670, in the Archives of Maryland series.

On the other side of the building, in the Hall of Records proper is
found a vast collection of provincial, state, and county archives. The most
important provincial materials are the Proceedings of the Governor and
Council, the Journals of the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly, Letter
Books, Commission Books, Black Books, Miscellaneous State Papers,
Proceedings of the Court of Appeals, Provincial Court Judgements, and
the books and papers of the Prerogative Office. The records of each

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