46 HIS LORDSHIP'S PATRONAGE

Solicitor, he had lost about 10, 000 pounds of tobacco in his own
legal practice. ³²

Governor Francis Nicholson now applied to the Board of Trade
for permission to give him a gratuity of £ 50 and a salary of £ 30
or £ 40 sterling out of the fines and forfeitures. But they replied
that, " considering... his Majesty has thought fitt to Constitute
onely Attorneys Generall and not Solicitors generall uniformly
through all the Coloneys in America We do not think it fitt for
us to propose to his Majesty the Establishment of any such New
Officer in any particular place. " ³³ On October 22, 1698, Nichol-
son appointed Dent Attorney General, succeeding Plater, who now
became Naval Officer of Patuxent. ³⁴

Similarly the office of Examiner and Master in Chancery, created
in 1734, lasted for only ten years. Early in the royal period
associate justices in Chancery had become known as Masters or
Assistants; and in 1715 the Council had settled upon these officials
a small fee of 150 pounds of tobacco, or £0. 12. 6 sterling, for
any reference made to them. ³⁵ In 1733, however, Governor Samuel
Ogle represented to Baltimore the need of a new officer who
should reside in Annapolis and take oaths and depositions in
chancery cases. This would supplant the former practice of com-
missioning persons in the counties for this purpose. ³⁶

Baltimore at once authorized Ogle, as Chancellor, to appoint
an Examiner and Master in Chancery, with all the powers of that
officer in England, and, as Governor, to fix the table of his fees.
These Ogle established in Council on February 20, 1733/4; and
early that October he appointed a kinsman of Lord Baltimore's,
Benjamin Young, Sr., to fill the new office. ³⁷

Now this whole proceeding ran counter to a determination of
the Lower House to prevent erection of new offices and the
establishment of new fees save by acts of Assembly. They re-
solved in 1739 " that the appointing new offices here with fees
without the consent of the People of this Province or their Dele-
gates in Assembly is illegal and Oppressive.... " ³⁸ When they

³² Cf. Dent's petition, Dec. 12, 1696 (Ibid., XX, 559).

³³ Francis Nicholson to Board of Trade, March 13, 1696/7, and Aug. 20, 1698;
Board of Trade to Francis Nicholson, Sept. 2, 1697 (Ibid., XXIII, 211 498-
Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1696-97, art. 798).

³⁴ Archives, XXV, 20.

³⁵ Ibid., XX, 576; XXV, 52, 305. ³⁷ Ibid., XXVIII, 58-59; XLII, 111.

³⁶ Ibid., XXVIII, 57-58. ³⁸ Ibid. XL, 381, 415.