Letter of Transmittal. xiii

during this period that a serious attempt was made to exercise some degree of
supervision and control over the clergy of the Established Church. These owed
their appointments to the Proprietary, and once installed, could not be removed,
even when they proved unworthy of the positions which they held. Several
instances of flagrant misbehavior by the rectors of Maryland parishes became
notorious during this period. An effort was made at the 1768 Assembly to
secure the passage of an act providing supervision and regulation of the clergy
by a commission to be appointed by the Governor, headed by him and having
on it both clerical and lay representatives, but it was not until later that such
legislation was secured. A curious act was one passed at the 1768 session,
which released a clergyman in prison for debt, with the proviso that the greater
part of his salary as rector should be paid over to his creditors until the debts
were liquidated.

It was during this period that provision was first made in Maryland for
the institutional care of the poor, the ill, and the mentally defective in alms
houses, and for the custody of vagrants and beggars in work houses, which
were to be erected in five of the wealthier counties. Before this the poor and
dependent sick had been placed out for care in private families, and the cost
of this care paid for by the several counties.

Although attempts had been made at recent sessions to secure the passage
of fish conservation measures, it was not until this period that legislation was
finally obtained prohibiting the erection of dams and fish weirs on the Susque-
hanna, Potomac, and Patuxent rivers, which prevented the passage of fish up
and down these streams. These acts passed at the 1768 session were the first
Maryland laws for the conservation of its natural resources.

It was in this period that the last remnants of members of the once powerful
tribe of Nanticoke Indians left Maryland. The migration of the Nanticokes
from Dorchester County to the headwaters of the Susquehanna River in New
York to join their brothers of the Six Nations had been steadily going on for
the two previous decades. It was in the year 1766 that the last pitiful remnants
of this tribe left the Province to join their tribe in New York. An act was
passed paying a small sum of money to the tribe for relinquishing any rights
they might have in their Maryland reservations.

The first public health law, one providing for a quarantine against infected
ships, was passed in the year 1766. Epidemics had been introduced into the
Province by overcrowded ships bringing felons from English jails to be sold
as servants to the planters. The passage of the Quarantine Law was bitterly
resented by the English contractors who made large profits from the shipment
and sale of these' criminals, and efforts, fortunately unsuccessful, were made