70 HIS LORDSHIP'S PATRONAGE

Indeed, although distributed as a political plum, the shrievalty
was a difficult place and required, together with financial resources,
both ability and experience. Governor Sharpe could write in 1768
that, " As to the Sheriffs Offices... though some of them if the
Sheriff is very active and diligent punctual & well acquainted with
the People of his County & their Circumstances may be worth
£ 300 [sterling] a year yet the Instances of Peoples injuring their
Fortune by undertaking these Offices have been very common
owing to their not being in a sufficient degree possess't of the
above mentioned Qualifications.... " ³⁹ In the same tenor is a
letter of 1756 from Attorney General Stephen Bordley, a man of
wide connections among the official class, to a newly appointed
sheriff in Kent County: ⁴⁰

The Sheriffs office is a place either of Considerable gain or as Con-
siderable loss; & the difference turns upon the proportion of Care, Exact-
ness & diligence in the Execution of it; I would therefore recommend
that you be very careful and Exact in your Accounts, to which end you
must keep your Books yourself; and must oblige your Deputies on a
certain day in Every fortnight at least, to come to your house, & settle
their particular Accounts with you, that you may know how Tobaccoes
etc. in their respective hands lye, & consequently how your affairs in
General with Regard to the office are....

Do not from a spirit of frugality, pinch yourself in the number of
your Deputies; but Employ enough to do the business well & with ease;
nothing will be lost by this method; for besides the Savings in having
your business well done, the more you employ the less will their ridings
be, & the less these are, the less may be their respective salaries.

Do not Credit the People over the year where it can possibly be avoided;
for besides the Invidious Suspition that this is done for the sake of
charging them Interest, when they find the load of the 2d year added to
the first, they Sensibly feele the Burthen, and as they will chose to blame
anyone rather than themselves, the Sheriff has the whole of it, & tho it
be ever so unjustly, it will nevertheless affect his Character and raise a
Clamour against him.... But if you should at any time Advance for
a man who cannot pay this year, I think you may in such case fairly
charge interest: Be punctual therefore & Strict in making them pay their
Annual dues, that you may be punctual yourself; And if this be done
without moroseness, and with good nature, the people will be so far
from Censuring you at the Expiration of your time that, when you go

to Edward Lloyd, March 9, 1756, and Horatio Sharpe to Lord Baltimore, Aug.
15. 1765 (Calvert Paper No. 1181, Md. Historical Society; Archives, XIV, 214).
³⁹ Horatio Sharpe to Hugh Hamersley, July 25, 1768 (Ibid., XIV, 517-18).
⁴⁰ Stephen Bordley to Hercules Coutts, Dec. 11, 1756 (Bordley Papers, Letter
Book of Stephen Bordley, 1756-59, 22-24, Md. Historical Society).