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KENT COUNTY. 143
time and in such manner as he or they shall think fit, to take out of every
county or hundred within the province, the third man able to bear arms,
such as he or they shall think fit to go upon the said expedition, except that
the lieutenant general and his apprentices are not to be reckoned in any hundred to any purpose of this act."
The letter addressed by Calvert to Governor Berkeley, late in August,
did not reach James City until the 5th of October, when it was at once laid
before the council. That body, on mature consideration, decided to return
answer that it was " impossible to comply with this request, as many of the
inhabitants were about to remove to new plantations, and were hardly able to
get arms and ammunition to defend themselves; and those remaining upon
the old plantations, not having a supply of military provisions, besides the
heavy hand of God's visitation upon the plantations generally, of which few
were recovered."x
Except some petty plundering committed by the Indians on the inhabitants of St. Clement's Hundred, some time in October of this year, for which
Mr. Gerard and Mr. Neale were authorized, by commission from the lieutenant general, to threaten and punish them, if necessary, our materials
furnish no other occurrence of the present year than the appointment of
Mr. Giles Brent, by commission of the 16th of December, "to be commander
of our isle and county of Kent; to be chief captain in all matters of warfare;
and to be chief judge in all matters and things civil and criminal, happening
within the said island, not extending to life, or member, or freehold." In the
same commission also, "William Ludington, Richard Thompson and Robert
Vaughan, gentlemen, were appointed to be commissioners within our said
island to all powers and effects as to commissioners of a county by the law of
the province do or shall belong." Commissioners of a county appear to have
been then considered as having, not only the powers of conservators of the
peace at common law, but as thereby authorized to hold a county court.
These gentlemen seem, therefore, to have been now first authorized to hold a
county court in the Isle of Kent. Mr. Bozman says:
" This seems to be the first passage, which occurs in the records, wherein the isle of
Kent was considered as a county. By the bill of 1638-9, entitled,' an act for the government of the isle of Kent,' the island was erected into a hundred, to be considered as within
the county of St. Mary's,' until another county should be erected of the eastern shore,
and no longer.' It appears to have been the sense of those who administered the provincial government in its earliest period, that no legislative interposition was neccessary for
the erection of a county within the province. Nor is any act of assembly to be found
for the original erection of any of the counties in this province (except that of 1650,
ch. 8,' for the erecting of Providence into a county, by the name of Ann Arundel1), until the
year 1695, when by an act of that year (ch. 13), a county was ' constituted' by the name
of Prince George's county, and the bounds of the several counties of St. Mary's, Charles,
Prince George's, Talbot, Kent, and Cecil were therein ' regulated;' and, by a distinct
clause therein, the isle of Kent was ' made part of Talbot county.'—We may, therefore,
1 Streeter's Maryland Papers, p. 178.
| Title | History of Maryland - 1 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000168 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | KENT COUNTY. 143 time and in such manner as he or they shall think fit, to take out of every county or hundred within the province, the third man able to bear arms, such as he or they shall think fit to go upon the said expedition, except that the lieutenant general and his apprentices are not to be reckoned in any hundred to any purpose of this act." The letter addressed by Calvert to Governor Berkeley, late in August, did not reach James City until the 5th of October, when it was at once laid before the council. That body, on mature consideration, decided to return answer that it was " impossible to comply with this request, as many of the inhabitants were about to remove to new plantations, and were hardly able to get arms and ammunition to defend themselves; and those remaining upon the old plantations, not having a supply of military provisions, besides the heavy hand of God's visitation upon the plantations generally, of which few were recovered."x Except some petty plundering committed by the Indians on the inhabitants of St. Clement's Hundred, some time in October of this year, for which Mr. Gerard and Mr. Neale were authorized, by commission from the lieutenant general, to threaten and punish them, if necessary, our materials furnish no other occurrence of the present year than the appointment of Mr. Giles Brent, by commission of the 16th of December, "to be commander of our isle and county of Kent; to be chief captain in all matters of warfare; and to be chief judge in all matters and things civil and criminal, happening within the said island, not extending to life, or member, or freehold." In the same commission also, "William Ludington, Richard Thompson and Robert Vaughan, gentlemen, were appointed to be commissioners within our said island to all powers and effects as to commissioners of a county by the law of the province do or shall belong." Commissioners of a county appear to have been then considered as having, not only the powers of conservators of the peace at common law, but as thereby authorized to hold a county court. These gentlemen seem, therefore, to have been now first authorized to hold a county court in the Isle of Kent. Mr. Bozman says: " This seems to be the first passage, which occurs in the records, wherein the isle of Kent was considered as a county. By the bill of 1638-9, entitled,' an act for the government of the isle of Kent,' the island was erected into a hundred, to be considered as within the county of St. Mary's,' until another county should be erected of the eastern shore, and no longer.' It appears to have been the sense of those who administered the provincial government in its earliest period, that no legislative interposition was neccessary for the erection of a county within the province. Nor is any act of assembly to be found for the original erection of any of the counties in this province (except that of 1650, ch. 8,' for the erecting of Providence into a county, by the name of Ann Arundel1), until the year 1695, when by an act of that year (ch. 13), a county was ' constituted' by the name of Prince George's county, and the bounds of the several counties of St. Mary's, Charles, Prince George's, Talbot, Kent, and Cecil were therein ' regulated;' and, by a distinct clause therein, the isle of Kent was ' made part of Talbot county.'—We may, therefore, 1 Streeter's Maryland Papers, p. 178. |
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