Laws of the State of Maryland: title varies, 1719–, Annapolis, etc., var. state printers, 1917– Of note, Maryland’s colonial origins date back to a
charter granted to Cecilius Calvert, the 2nd Lord Baltimore, by King Charles 1 of England. The charter authorized a colony in the wilderness between
the then somewhat uncertain limits of the colonies of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Definitive boundaries were not settled until 1763-67, when the drawing
of the Mason-Dixon Line determined Maryland’s boundaries with the colonies of Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The founding Royal Charter also
permitted Lord Baltimore to make laws “with the advice, assent and approbation of the Free Men of the same Province, or the greater part of them, or of
their delegates….” The first Maryland General Assembly was convened by the first governor of the colony, Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore’s brother, in
1634/35. ” The Assembly met in in St. Mary’s City, then the colonies major settlement. Until 1650 the legislature was unicameral, after which date it
was composed of upper and lower houses; i.e., the governor’s Council and the House of Freemen. In 1695 the capital was moved from St. Mary’s City to
Annapolis (formerly the settlement of Providence). The last colonial era assembly was suspended by the royal governor in 1774, and the colony was
governed for the next three years by an extralegal provincial convention. A new constitution in 1776 established a legislature composed of a Senate and
House of Delegates. The first General Assembly of the newly constituted legislature met in Annapolis in 1777. Maryland was the 13th state to ratify the
Articles of Confederation and was the 7th state to ratify the new Constitution. Of note, the manuscript version of the session laws from the Calvert
Papers is found at LLMC #41373. (The volumes in the Early State Records collection were digitized from a microfilm copy of title originally held by
the Library of Congress, Maryland State Library, Hall of Records in Annapolis, Maryland, Maryland Diocesan Library, Harvard Law School Library and
other sources).
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