ster which could
be found, "except some Warrants, and some Draughts of Mr. _Hill's_
Time." All the records, therefore, were not destroyed, but in 1649,
there were in existence papers belonging to the Hill regime. But
greater proofs against the vandalism of Ingle are the records
themselves, or the copies of them, which could not have been made if
the originals had been destroyed, and which have at last been
deposited where thieves do not break through nor steal. There have
been preserved among the records up to 1647, the original proprietary
record books, liber Z., 1637-1644 and liber P. R., 1642 to February
12, 1645. The Council Proceedings, 1636-1657, the Assembly
Proceedings, 1638-1658, and liber F., 1636-1642, proprietary records,
have been handed down in copies. The loss of liber F., 1636-1642, can
no more be attributed to Ingle than can the loss of liber K.,
1692-1694, which was made fifty years after Ingle's time. Both of
these, as well as records of later years, have been preserved in
copies only, but a brief study of the Calendar of State Archives,
prefixed to the Acts of Assembly, will demonstrate that the
destruction of records by Ingle could not have been so great as has
been supposed. But did he destroy any? There are gaps in the records,
that exist between February 14, 1645, when the rebellion occurred, and
December, 1646, when Calvert returned, but it is not likely that under
the existing circumstances very great care was taken of the records of
these twenty-two months, and moreover there is no proof that Ingle was
in the province after 1645, for he was probably in London in December
of that year, and certainly in the following February. His appointing
Cornwallis his attorney for collecting Maryland and Virginia debts
would also lead one to believe that he did not return to the province.
Some of the records of the Hill government, however, were in existence
in 1649, but as far as is known have since disappeared. Ingle
certainly did not destroy them, and indeed to a man engaged in the
tobacco trade, there were few inducements to waste his time, and that
of his men cutting up records.

It is difficult to understand why Lord Baltimore should have called
Ingle an "ungrateful villain," for the reception the latter met at St.
Mary's in 1644, was not calculated to inspire one with gratitude. The
compensation offered Ingle might have been deemed liberal, but the
Maryland authorities acknowledged that they had to