48 HIS LORDSHIP'S PATRONAGE

of May, 1695; but the delegates deferred the matter, pleading
" the poverty & low circumstances of the people. " ⁴⁴

In the later proprietary period Charles Slye of St. Mary's
County applied for such an office, under the new title of Adjutant,
in 1731 and again in the following year, but the two houses failed
to agree on a method of payment. ⁴⁵ On August 8, 1732, however,
the Governor and Council, as custodians of the fund for ammu-
nition, ordered him a salary of £ 40 sterling out of the export duty
for arms. ⁴⁶ Slye was drawing this salary as late as January,
1735/6, but he had no successor. ⁴⁷

During the eighteenth century the government kept a supply of
arms in the storehouse at Annapolis and a smaller deposit in
custody of each county colonel of militia. The Annapolis arsenal,
from 1701 to 1767, was supervised by a Master Gunner and
Armourer; the county stores, for ten years after 1704, were
inspected by a Commissary General for War.

In May, 1701, the Governor and Council appointed Richard
Beard to the post of Armourer and settled upon him a salary of
£ 20 out of the duty for arms. ⁴⁸ This salary was raised to £ 25
on the appointment of Andrew Richmond in 1704/5, to £ 30 on
the appointment of Captain John Young in 1707/8, and finally
to £40 in June, 1720. But it was reduced to £ 25 by an act of
July, 1747. ⁴⁹

Meantime the duty for arms, which had expired in June, 1740,
was revived for but two years in 1747, and the accumulated fund
for this purpose became exhausted sometime after October, 1756.
The unfortunate Armourer, Mr. Henry Walls, then went unpaid
for years; and when in 1767 he died insolvent, his widow was
unable to recover any back salary. ⁵⁰

⁴⁴ Ibid., XIX, 162.

⁴⁵ Ibid., XXXVII, 207, 239, 260, 307, 434, 510.

⁴⁶ Ibid., XXVIII, 12, 59. The export duty for arms, three pence sterling per
hogshead of tobacco, was collected from 1692 to Sept. 29, 1733, from April, 1735
to June, 1740, and from July, 1747, to Sept. 29, 1749.

⁴⁷ Ibid., XLII, 60, 123.

⁴⁸ Ibid., XXIV, 139, 152, 347, 387.

⁴⁹ Ibid., XXVI, 545; XXVII, 238; XLII, 40, 42, 70; XLIV, 653.

⁵⁰ The Armourer was last paid in October, 1756 (Ibid., XXXI, 161). See
complaints of the Lower House about this officer, in 1750 and 1763, and the
report of their committee in 1765 (Ibid., XLVI, 400, 405; LVIII, 390-91, 395;
LIX, 146-48). The successive Armourers, all residents of Annapolis, were:
Richard Beard, May, 1701 to his death, Oct., 1703; his son, Matthew Beard, Oct.,
1703 to Feb., 1704/5; Andrew Richmond, Feb. 20, 1704/5 to after April, 1706;