Archives of Maryland
Historical List
Proprietary Assembly of 1646 - 1646/47

First Session: Fall 1646¹
Second Session: December 29, 1646 - January 2, 1646/47

Source:
Edward C. Papenfuse, et al., A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789, Vols. 1&2.  Annapolis, MD: Maryland State Archives, 1979, 1985.

a - appointed; c- Council; d - died; dcl - declined; dns - did not serve; ds - dismissed; e - elected; ev - election voided;
pres - president of the Senate; pres p. t. - president pro tem of the Senate; psa - post-session appointment; psd - post-session death;
psr - post-session resignation; r - resigned; s - Sheriff. The designation connotes a legislator's disqualificaiton from sitting before or during the numbered session or convention of the Assemby because he chose to accept the office of sheriff; spkr - speaker of the House; spkr p.t. - speaker pro tem of the House; sw - Special Writ. A personal summons issued by the governor for attendance at an assembly.

1. The first session of this Assembly, called by Deputy Governor Edward Hill, apparently met in the fall of 1646 following Hill's commission in July of that year. The Assembly's legality was later questioned because Hill's appointment was invalid due to his not being a councilor. The second session, also challenged later because it met under the same summons from Hill, was chaired by Leonard Calvert, who had returned to Maryland by the late fall of 1646.

2. This was the first Assembly to meet in two houses; the division had occurred at least by the second session.

3. The Assembly of 1649 would charge that "the whole house of Commons (two or three only excepted) consisted of that Rebelled Party and his [Calvert's] Professed Enemies." It is very likely that the membership included the nine men who swore to the oath of fealty to the proprietary government on January 2, 1646/47 along with Lewger, Gerard, and Greene, the three known members of the Upper House at the second session. Those men and their probable constituencies were: Francis Gray (St. George's Hundred), John Hampton (probably Kent Isle), John Hatch (St. Mary's Hundred), Francis Pope (probably Newtown Hundred), William Thompson (Newtown Hundred), William Bretton (Newtown Hundred, probably clerk of the Assembly), Nathaniel Pope (St. Mary's Hundred), Thomas Sturman (St. Michael's Hundred), John Hollis (St. Mary's Hundred). Of these men, at least Sturman, Gray, and Hampton were "rebels."

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