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424 THE COUNTIES OF MARYLAND
Anne Arundel .......... (1650) Acts of Assembly, 1650, Ch. 8.
Providence ............ (1654) " " 1654, " 17.
Patuxent .............. (1654) " " 1654, " 17.
Potomac ............... (1654) " " 1654, " 17.
Prince George's. ........ (1695) " " 1695, " 13.
Queen Anne's. .......... (1706) " " 1706, " 3.
Worcester ............. (1742) " " 1742, " 14.
Frederick ............. (1748) " " 1748, " 15.
Caroline ............... (1773) " " (Nov. sess.), 1773, Ch. 6.
Harford ............... (1773) " " " 1773, " 10.
Allegany .............. (1789) " " " 1789, " 29.
Carroll ................ (1836) " " " 1836, " 19.
Garrett ................ (1872) " " " 1872, " 212.
Four counties have been erected by constitutional conventions, two of
them being made by the constitutional convention of 1776, one by the
second constitutional convention, 1850, and one by the fourth, 1867'.
The counties thus erected are as follows:
Washington .......... (1776) Howard .............. (1850)
Montgomery .......... (1776) Wicomico ............ (1867)
Washington and Montgomery were erected prior to the completion of
the first constitution out of previously recognized " districts "of Fred-
erick County. Howard and Wicomico were erected by the adoption of
sections in the respective constitutions.
The records regarding the erection of three of the counties are entirely
lacking or so incomplete that nothing can be told as to the way they
were erected, but from the dates it is probable that the form pursued
was that of an order of the Governor in Council. The evidence of their
existence is first shown in each instance by the record of the issuance
of writs to the sheriffs of the several counties, the names of the new
counties appearing for the first time in the lists. Baltimore, Talbot,
and Porchester counties are the three with incomplete records. One
may gain some conception of the limits originally decreed by subsequent
incidents, but in no one of the eases are the bounds specified by the origi-
nal Act known.8
3 The first evidence of the existence of these counties is in writs issued to
the sheriff on the following dates:
Baltimore, Jan. 12, 1659/60, Md. Arch., 1: 381.
Talbot, Feb. 18, 1661/62, Md. Arch., 1: 425.
Dorchester, Feh. 16, 1668/69, Md. Arch., 3: 448.
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