98 HIS LORDSHIP'S PATRONAGE

on that Account little Service is done by these Officers, " ³⁰ The
Commissioners at Boston had in fact two years earlier, in 1768,
urged suppression of the Riding Surveyorship at Bohemia and
Sassafras and of the Surveyor and Searcher's office at Annapolis. ³¹
However the Treasury Lords, loath to reduce their own patronage,
maintained a full quota of these offices until the Revolution put
an end to all of them.

On the enactment of new parliamentary duties, just after the
French and Indian War, one Comptroller was placed in each of
the Collector's districts (1764-66). He was to share in super-
vising the district and to audit the Collector's accounts. ³² The
full customs establishment now consisted of four Collectors, two
Surveyors and Searchers, three Riding Surveyors, and four
Comptrollers. ³³

All of these officers were appointed in one of two ways, either
by patent from the crown or the Treasury Lords or by deputation
from the Customs Commissioners. ³⁴ There are, however, but three
instances in Maryland of appointment by letters patent. ³⁵ In
either case ultimate decision rested with the Treasury: royal
patents issued only on their motion and deputations only on their
warrant. At first the Treasury would order deputation of persons
earlier " presented " to them by the Commissioners. But they
tended increasingly to act at their own discretion. ³⁶ Meantime the
Secretaries of State, particularly the Duke of Newcastle, gained

³⁰ John Williams to Customs Commissioners at Boston, May 12, 1770 (Maryland
Historical Magazine, XXVII [1932], 232).

³¹ Customs Commissioners to Treasury Lords, Oct. 28, 1768 (Ibid., XXVII
[1932], 238).

"Commission Book No. 82, folio 163 (Hall of Records); Public Record Office,
Audit Office, b. 821, r. 1071, LC; Gilmor Papers, II, 44 (Md. Historical Society);
Archives, XIV, 311. The appointments are dated from July 27, 1764, to May
30, 1766.

On the eve of the Revolution these officers were as follows: Collectors:
Benedict Calvert, Patuxent; Daniel Wolstenholme, North Potomac; William Bacon,
Pocomoke; William Geddes, Chester. Surveyors and Searchers: William Eddis,
Annapolis; John Leeds, Oxford. Riding Surveyors: Robert Stratford Byrne,
Bohemia and Sassafras; Levin Gale, Pocomoke; William Bacon, Wicomico and
Monie. Comptrollers: James Gibbs, Patuxent; Dr. Upton Scott, North Potomac;
Andrew Ragg, Pocomoke; John Gapham, Chester. All had been in office five years
or more except William Bacon as Collector of Pocomoke, who had succeeded
Robert Heron in that post on Nov. 24, 1774.

³⁴ a. Hoon, op. ch., 195.

³⁵ Col. George Plater and Col. Nehemiah Blakiston, Jan. 8, 1691/2, as Receivers;
George Muschamp, Oct. 8, 1695, as Collector and Receiver of North Potomac,
all by royal letters patent.

³⁶ Hoon, op. cit., 50, 198. An example is Sterling's appointment as Collector
of Chester and Patapsco.