From about this time seems to date the growth of Baltimore. Fell's Point, which, as has been already remarked, was not added to the town until 1773, became a busy seat of industry. Ship-yards were established there, and on account of its greater accessibility for the shipping, many merchants made their residence there, so that for a long time it was doubtful whether town or point was to be the nucleus of the future city. A disposition for internal improvements manifested itself at this time. In 1763, the first market-house was built, situated at the corner of Baltimore and Gay streets. In 1766, the marsh between Frederick street and the falls was ordered to be filled, and in 1768, Baltimore had risen so much in importance as to justify the removal of the court-house from Joppa, (now an inconsiderable village in the northwestern portion of the county, on the Gunpowder River,) to this place. Baltimore continued to be the county seat until 1851, when the city and county jurisdictions were separated and the county courts established at Towsontown. In 1769, the first fire-engine, which was bought by a few public spirited men at a cost of £99, was introduced, and the same year, the first Roman Catholic Church was erected. The site of it is now occupied by Calvert Hall, a school of the Redemptorists, on Saratoga street. In 1773, a workhouse was established, a small theatre erected, and a Methodist congregation organized. The members of the Methodist society (which was yet in its infancy) built a church for their use in Strawberry alley, and the next year, one in Lovely lane.
The general prosperity of the Province since the foundation of Baltimore, appears from the rapid increase in the population. In 1733, the taxable inhabitants, (i. e. all males above the age of sixteen and all negro or mulatto females,) numbered 31,470. In 1748 the entire population was 130,000, (94,000 whites and 36,000 blacks.) In 1756, it had increased to 154,188, (107,963 whites and 46,225 blacks.) In 1761, it amounted to 164,007, (114,332 whites and 49,675 blacks.) A valuable addition to the population during this period, (but one which was greatly deplored at the time by the good people of the Province,) was the number of convicts imported, which is estimated to have been no less than fifteen or twenty thousand. They were brought over by private shippers, who made a contract with the government of England for the purpose, and sold them into servitude in the Province for their term of transportation. Hazardous as it was to introduce into a community such great numbers of persons whose past record was that of crime, the experiment worked well. The lack of labor, which, as in all new countries, had been felt as a serious inconvenience in the colony, was by this means supplied, and the convicts, becoming identified with the ordinary population, when their term of servitude expired, many of them were transformed into useful and reputable citizens, and some of them rose to honorable distinction.[1]
The exports of tobacco from Maryland to England were estimated in 1761 to be about 28,000 hhds. annually, valued at £140,000. The other exports at
- ↑ McMahon, p. 314.
