96 HIS LORDSHIP'S PATRONAGE

and so forth, together with half the produce of the duty. Surveyor
and Comptroller Coursey, who could take no fees, was at first to
have a third of the duty, but his portion was reduced to a fourth
in March, 1674/5. ¹⁹

Twenty years later, in 1694, the entire net produce of this
plantation duty in Maryland and Virginia was given to the Col-
lege of William and Mary. To reduce costs of collection the post
of Surveyor and Comptroller General was abolished and its
function assigned to the college governors. The Collector's share
was reduced from a half to a fifth. ²⁰

Meanwhile the original district, Patuxent, had been restricted
by establishment in 1686 of two new districts, North Potomac and
Pocomoke. ²¹ In 1752, to the disgust of Collector Benedict Calvert,
it was further confined by erection of a fourth district, Chester
and Patapsco. This was to provide for the Rev. James Sterling,
who had friends in the Treasury, and it embraced the head of the
bay from the Patapsco around to and including Chester River on
the Eastern Shore. ²² As it was a place of very little business, it
should have been discontinued on Sterling's death in 1763. How-
ever, one William Geddes soon after obtained a collectorship of
Chester River only, the Patapsco and other rivers reverting to
Patuxent. ²³

Each Collector supervised his district and appointed deputies
in those remote parts he could not personally attend to. Prior to

¹⁹ Ibid., IV, 424, 427, 437, 452, 659, 705; VI, 25. Cf. Charles Calvert to Lord
High Treasurer, July 24, 1674 (Calvert Paper No. 1066, Md. Historical Society).
For instructions to the Surveyor and Comptroller General and to the Collectors
see Archives, XX, 167, 351; XXIII, 254.

²⁰ Calendar of Treasury Books, IX, pt. 5, 1966; X, pt. 1, 25; Archives, XX,
145, 341. On this plan the Treasury Lords reported favorably, July 15, 1692;
the King in Council approved it on Sept. 1, and a royal warrant for the grant
issued on Jan. 25, 1692/3. The new arrangement was announced in Maryland
by the Governor and Council on Oct. 8, 1694.

²¹ Ibid., V, 526. Col. George Layfield was appointed for Pocomoke District,
March 19, 1684/5, and Col. Nehemiah Blakiston for North Potomac, Sept. 26,
1685. Both were sworn in on Nov. 19, 1686.

²² Public Record Office, Treasury, 11/24, p. 155; Audit Office, b. 815, r. 1058,
LC. Sterling was appointed March 25, 1752; he died Nov. 10, 1763. See also
the letters cited in note 23 below.

"Public Record Office, Treasury Board Papers, b. 452, r. 195, LC. Cf. John
Williams to Customs Commissioners at Boston, May 26, 1770, and Customs Com-
missioners to Treasury Lords, Sept. 28, 1772 (Maryland Historical Magazine,
XXVII [1932], 233-38). Geddes was appointed shortly before Jan. 28, 1766.