REVENUE OFFICERS: PROPRIETARY 87

Examiner suffered by omission of his fees from the successive fee
acts, for with these charges settled only by Baltimore's instruction
they were often hard to collect. Those fees established in tobacco
in 1684 seem to have been doubled under crown rule, probably
in 1704, when the purchase price of lands was doubled. ⁵² In
September of this latter year a bill in the Lower House to settle
such fees and put them on execution failed to pass. ⁵³ They were,
however, included, at a twenty-five percent reduction, in the dis-
allowed fee act of 1725/6 and in the Inspection Law of 1747. ⁵⁴
We know that the Examiner General received 20, 000 pounds of
tobacco, about £ 86 sterling, in 1744 and £ 150 currency, perhaps
£ 100 sterling, more or less, in 1754. ⁵⁵ After the war his income
for three years, 1767 through 1769, averaged about £235 ster-
ling. ⁵⁶ This substantial increase was doubtless a result of rapid
settlement in Frederick County.

6. THE RENT ROLL KEEPERS.

The first requisite for collecting quit-rents was an accurate rent
roll indicating the name and acreage of each tract and the rental
and owner-ship of each parcel within it. Although our informa-
tion is somewhat uncertain, it would appear that the compiling
and keeping of such a record was originally a duty of the
Secretary.

The earliest surviving rent roll, with entries coming down to
1659, seems to have been the work of Secretary Philip Calvert,
who was appointed three years before this date, became also
Receiver General, and in 1660 rose to the chief executive office. ⁵⁷
Under his immediate successors this record apparently fell into
neglect. On June 30, 1671, his nephew, Governor Charles Calvert,
ordered each county clerk to make up a new roll of his own
county and deliver it at St. Mary's that October. ⁵⁸ In 1677/8

⁵² Ibid., XVII, 240; XXXVIII, 394.

⁵³ See a complaint in behalf of the Examiner General, in the Lower House.
Sept. 22, 1704, Ibid,, XXVI, 155-56.

⁵⁴ Ibid., XXXVIII, 594; XLIV, 523, 566, 635.

⁵⁵ Thomas Bladen to Lord Baltimore, Nov. 15, 1744 (Calvert Papers, H, 112).
The estimate of 1754 is in Portfolio No. 3, folder 30 (Hall of Records).

⁵⁶ Fees in tobacco as reported to the Lower House, Oct. 12, 1770 (Archives,
LXII, 232; Maryland Gazette, Nov. 29, 1770). Cf. Barker, op. cit., 382.

⁵⁷ Rent Rolls, liber Zero (Land Office). Duplicate copies among Calvert Papers,
Nos. 880, 880a, 880b and 880c (Md. Historical Society).

⁸⁸ Archives, V, 91-92.