OTHERS GREAT AND SMALL 45

ment of Colonel George Plater, September 8, 1692, until the
resignation of Stephen Bordley in December, 1763 (except in
the first eleven years of Henry Darnall's incumbency, that is,
1744-55) the Attorney General held one or more other places of
profit. From August, 1708, to July, 1724, and again from October,
1734, to April, 1744, he was also Commissary General; at other
times he held a Naval Office, which, when executed by deputy,
was in effect a sinecure. ²⁷

For three brief intervals Maryland possessed, besides an Attor-
ney General, a Solicitor General, who seems to have been merely
an assistant to the Attorney. No salary or fees were settled
upon this officer; but under royal government he was rewarded,
like the Attorney, with other places of profit.

On December 6, 1671, during an absence of Attorney General
Vincent Lowe, the Council appointed John Morecroft, the Register
of St. Mary's City, to act as Solicitor General in a case against
Captain Josias Fendall. ²⁸ The appointment seems to have been
a temporary one, and when Morecroft died, in June, 1674, no
successor was appointed.

Again on April 3, 1688, Chancellor Henry Darnall, pursuant to
Baltimore's instruction, appointed Major William Dent, then
Clerk of the Lower House, to be Solicitor General. ²⁹ This pro-
prietary office ceased with the fall of Baltimore's government on
August 1, 1689.

Dent was, however, reappointed to the same post, under crown
administration, November 13, 1694, at a time when Attorney
General Plater was busy with his customs offices. ³⁰ Apparently in
lieu of other reward, and for the time being, he received, a week
later, half the Naval Office of North Potomac and, in October,
1696, the whole of it. ³¹ In the following December, however,
he petitioned the Council for a regular salary, alleging that by
law all fees were payable to the Attorney General and that, as

²⁷ In 1754 Governor Sharpe suggested that the Naval Office of Patuxent be
permanently annexed to that of Attorney General so as to provide a reasonable
support for this officer. Henry Darnall III was not properly bred to the law, was
not very able, and was subjected to much criticism. See Horatio Sharpe to Cecilius
Calvert, June 6, 1754, and Cecilius Calvert to Horatio Sharpe, Dec. 10, 1754
(Ibid., VI, 71, 134).

²⁸ Ibid., V, 103.

²⁹ Ibid., VIII, 16-17.

³⁰ Ibid., XX, 172, 237.

³¹ Ibid., XX, 186, 531.