office prior to 26 April 1649 (AM, III, 201; IV, 503). Now that Parliament was
gaining the upper hand in England, Baltimore felt it prudent to install a Pro-
testant at the head of his government. Capt. Stone engaged to bring into the
province 500 settlers and at once obtained the immigration of a large number
of Puritans from Virginia. He was then unable to control them.

8. Richard Bennett (one of the Puritans), Edmund Curtis, and Col. William
Claiborne (Prots.), Commissioners of Parliament appointed to reduce all the
plantations within Chesapeake Bay, took possession of the government, 29 March

1642, (AM, III, 272).

9. Capt. William Stone, restored by the Commissioners, 28 June 1652, on
condition that he issue all writs in the name of the Keepers of the Liberties
of England. On 2 March 1653/4 he declared that writs would again issue in His
Lordships name, and shortly after 16 July 1654 the Commissioners again deposed
him (AM, III, 276, 300; X, 398).

10. Capt. William Fuller, Richard Preston, William Durand, Edward Lloyd,
John Hatch, and others (Prots. and chiefly Puritans), appointed to administer

the government by the Parliamentary Commissioners, 22 July 1654 (AM, III, 313);
carried on till 24 March 1657/8.

11. Capt. Josias Fendall (Prot., son-in-law of Hatch above) , com. by

Baltimore, 10 July 1656; received submission of Fuller and the other Puritans,
24 March 1657/8 (AM, III, 323, 340), In March, 1659/60, with the complicity
of Councillor Thomas Gerrard (Cath.) and of the Lower House of Assembly, led by

Fuller and Hatch, he denounced the proprietary government and accepted a new
commission from the Lower House. He and his associates were, however, obliged

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