The first recognition of Baltimore's existence by the Proprietary appears to have been in connection with an inquiry as to the possibility of making the growth of the town a source of additional income. Cecilius Calvert, the secretary of Frederick, the sixth Lord Baltimore, writes to Governor Sharpe that in Philadelphia William Penn has reserved property that brings him "much income now" and will produce to his heirs "immense revenue." Sharpe replies that Baltimore town is built upon land patented to private persons, and embraces the opportunity to moderate the extravagant reports of Baltimore's size that had reached the ears of the Proprietary, by adding that it "is almost as much inferiour to Philad^a as Dover is to London." However, the twenty-five houses and two hundred people of 1752 had become, in 1764, two hundred families, and the town "is increasing."
Such was Baltimore town when the citizens met together in town-meeting to adopt a non-*importation agreement, and to propose, upon the last day of May, 1774, the assembling of a general congress of delegates from all the colonies. The suffering of Boston under the Port Bill awoke deep sympathy, and in August of
