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Volume 662, Page 9   View pdf image (33K)
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THE MARYLAND PATRONAGE 9

the sheriffs (as collectors of the public levy), the Commissioners
of the Loan Office, and the Agents under supply acts.

The proprietary establishment comprised the Agent and Re-
ceiver, the Chancellor (in proprietary times), the Judges of the
Land Office, the Surveyors, the Examiner, the Naval Officers (as
collectors of proprietary duties), the Rent Roll Keepers, the
stewards, and those minor officials who collected quit-rents and
alienation fines.

In practice these three local units tended to fuse during the two
proprietary periods; but under royal government Lord Baltimore's
revenue establishment was sharply separate from the others.

Thus in the first proprietary period the Governor and Secretary
were closely associated with the Agent and Receiver General.
The Governor as chief executive aided and supervised him, while
the Secretary kept the land records. Patents bore the proprietary
broad seal in the Chancellor's keeping; and Naval Officers col-
lected both provincial and proprietary duties. Persons indebted
to His Lordship were prosecuted by the Attorney General. Simi-
larly the Agent acted as a public treasurer, receiving and dis-
bursing the annual levies collected by the sheriffs.

Under royal government members of the proprietary establish-
ment remained the servants of Lord Baltimore, but all others
were responsible to the crown. The Governor ceased to aid and
advise His Lordship's Agent. The Secretary, though he retained
most of the land records, performed no other function in terri-
torial affairs. Lord Baltimore's seal passed into the Agent's
custody, and separate Naval Officers collected proprietary duties.
Of the two Attorneys General one prosecuted debtors to Lord
Baltimore and the other criminals and debtors to the crown. The
Agent received only the proprietor's personal income. Funds for
the support of government were paid to crown Receivers, and
provincial funds were paid to Public Treasurers.

After the restoration of 1715 Baltimore's revenue establishment
again fused, though incompletely, with the other two local units.
The Governor, who now resumed his duties as aid and adviser to
the Agent, was given one of the Surveyorships. The Deputy
Secretary, recovering his functions in land affairs, assumed the
title of Judge of the Land Office. The Chancellor regained cus-
tody of His Lordship's great seal, which he now affixed to land


 

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