Some of the proscribed paper, which arrived in December a 1765 (a) was sent back by Governor Sharpe. The people refused to use the odious stamps, and all legal business was suspended for a while. The Maryland Gazette, like the Pennsylvania Journal (see page 259), appeared in mourning on the 31st of October, declaring, like its cotemporary, that "The times are Dreadful, Dismal, Doleful, Dolorous, and Dollarless." The editor issued "an apparition of the late Maryland Gazette" on the 10th of December, and expressed his "belief that the odious Stamp Act would never be carried into operation."
On the 1st of March, 1766, the Sons of Liberty of Baltimore, Kent, and Anne Arundel counties held their first formal meeting at the court-house in Annapolis. The Reverend Andrew Lendrum was appointed moderator, and William Paca (afterward a signer of the Declaration of Independence) was chosen secretary. Joseph Nicholson, from Kent county, presented an address from that district, signed by twenty-three of the leading men. ** It was an application to the chief justice of the provincial court, the secretary and commissary general, and judges of the land-offices, asking them to resume the business of their respective offices regardless of the law. The Anne Arundel and Baltimore committees also signed the request, *** which, being forwarded to those officers, was complied with. The Stamp Act thus virtually became a nullity a month before the intelligence of its repeal arrived. That intelligence reached Annapolis at noon on the 5th of April, and diffused unusual joy through the city. Ihe remainder of the day was spent by the people in mirth and festivity, and at an assemblage in the evening, "all loyal and patriotic toasts were drank." The Assembly of Maryland voted a statue to the king, and ordered a portrait of Lord Camden, a parliamentary friend of the Americans, to be painted for the State House. On the 11th of June, great rejoicings were again held at Annapolis, that day having been appointed for the purpose by the
* Ridgeley's Annals of Annapolis, page 136.
** The following are the names of the Sons of Liberty of Kent county, appended to the address: "Joseph Nicholson, William Ringgold, William Stephenson, Thomas Ringgold, Jr., Joseph M'Hard, Gideon M'Cauley, Daniel Fox, Benjamin Binning, William Bordley, Jarvis James, William Stukely, Joseph Nicholson, Jr.. James Porter, Thomas Ringgold, James Anderson, Thomas Smyth, William Murray, George Garnet, S. Boardley, Jr., Peroy Frisby, Henry Yandike, and John Bolton."
*** The Anne Arundel committee consisted of William Paca, Samuel Chase (also a signer of the Declaration of Independence), and Thomas B. Hands. The Baltimore county committee were John Hall, Robert Alexander, Corbin Lee, James Heath, John Moale, and William Lux. The Baltimore town committee consisted of Thomas Chase, D. Charnier, Robert Adair, Reverend Patrick Allison, and W. Smith.
**** Charles Pratt, earl of Camden, was the third son of Chief-justice Pratt, of the King's Bench. He was horn in 1713, and educated at Eton and Cambridge. His fine talents as a legal scholar having been made known in a case wherein he defended Mr. Pitt, that gentleman, when chancellor in 1757, procured for Pratt the office of attorney general. He was raised to the dignity of chief justice of the Common Pleas in 1762, and had the manly courage, while in office, to pronounce in favor of John Wilkes, against the wishes of government. For this he was applauded throughout the kingdom. He was made a peer of the realm, with the title of Earl of Camden, in 1765, and in 1766 was advanced to the Seals. Throughout the struggle of the Americans for right and liberty, he was a consistent friend of the colonists. In 1782, he was appointed president of the Privy Council, which place he held, except for a short interim, until his death. He died on the 18th of April, 1794, aged eighty-one years.
Governor Eden.—Arrival of a Tea Ship.—Burning of the Vessel and Cargo