PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY

Monthly Meeting, Monday, May 11, 1914.-The regular monthly meeting of the Society was held at 8.30 p. m., President Edwin Warfield presiding. In the absence of the Recording Secretary, Mr. Andrew C. Trippe, acted at the request of the President as Secretary, pro tempore. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.

The following persons were elected to active membership in the Society:

Annie Heloise Abel, Ph. D., Martin E. Ridgely, Mrs. Ida M. Shirk, Percy C. Skirven, Annie Horner Thomas and Henry Hoffman, D. D. S.; and Henry E. B. Altzel was elected to associate membership.

The correspondence was then read by the Corresponding Secretary, among which was the following letter, which is here recorded:

"Stamford, Connecticut, May 8th, 1914.

My Dear Mr. Warfield:

"I beg you to forgive what may be an intrusion on my part. But will you tell me where to address a letter, or to whom to write concerning a set of silver which I wish to give intact to some Society?

"My great-grandmother was a Virginian who moved with her family to Cincinnati when it was a trading post. She there met and married my great-grandfather, Major Ferguson. Their daughter, Amelia, an only daughter, married my grandfather, James Morsell who had gone there from Baltimore. They had two sons and two daughters. My mother was the only one who had any children, although the two sons married.

"My brother left no children. They had died before he died. My sister had no children, so this silver set of six pieces is now mine. I should like to give it to some Museum in Bal

timore. My father was a Baltimorean. I have not a relative now in Cincinnati; not a relative now living except an old aunt (a childless widow) in Baltimore.

66 Can you give me the name of some Museum that would like it and I shall be very glad to give it, and a miniature of the great-grandfather who had it. When General de Lafayette was in Cincinnati, all of his coffee was drained from the coffee pot in this set in 1824. My great-grandmother attended the ball given to him; and mother was kissed by the General, his son, and the then Secretary of State. She was only six months old at the time.

"Mr. Warfield, I am very anxious to give this set of six pieces to some Society that would value it. I have no relatives, have never married, and I am in my sixty-sixth year. If you can give me any information as to whom to address on the subject, I would be very, very deeply in your debt. I should add that fate has dealt very hardly with me in my old age. In youth I had every thing that was needed. I am now very poor, but I would like very much to place this set of silver where it would be valued. My sister died last November and left it

to me.

"I have been very ill, but would now like to have it placed in some good Museum where it would be safe. Please pardon me for troubling you to write me concerning it.

Very truly yours,

(Miss) Aimee Morsell McConkey.

"No. 21 Willow St., Stamford, Conn."

The Corresponding Secretary was requested to answer Miss McConkey's letter and state that this Society would be pleased to receive the silver.

The resignation of Mrs. P. A. M. Brooke was read and accepted.

The Necrology was read by the Secretary as follows:

On Saturday, May 2, 1914, Mrs. Robert C. Barry, an active member of the Society.

Mr. Harris read a letter concerning the "Orizimbo" and asked if any one could assist in throwing any light on the same. The report of the Committee on Amendment to the Constitution presented at the April meeting, the proposed amendments were, after some discussion, amended and adopted as follows:Section 1 of Article 2, amended to read:

The Society shall consist of life, active, associate, corresponding and honorary members.

Section 1A, to be added to Article 2:—

A life member shall be one who contributes a sum not less than one hundred dollars to the Permanent Fund and has been duly elected as provided by Section 2 of Article 2 of this Constitution. Such member shall be exempt from the payment of annual dues.

Section 1 of Article 5 amended to read:

At any stated meeting of the Society a ballot shall be held for those candidates for life, active, associate or corresponding membership whose names have been entered in the nomination book by an active member of the Society or by his written authority, and have been by the Recording Secretary announced at a previous stated meeting.

The paper of the evening entitled "The Rich Neck, a Colonial Manor," was then read by Mr. Joseph B. Seth, a member of the Society.

Meeting of October 12, 1914.-The regular meeting for the month of October was held at the home of the Society at 8.30 p. m., with President Warfield in the Chair.

The Corresponding Secretary described the donations to the cabinet since the last meeting. A letter from Messrs. Spink & Son, London, England, concerning a bronze seal of Maryland which they offer for sale for £50 was discussed and a wax impression of the seal sent by Messrs. Spink & Son was exhibited. Mr. Cohen stated that Mr. C. C. Hall had examined the wax

impression carefully and had reached the conclusion that it was an exact copy of the present great seal of Maryland. Mr. Cohen added that he had written to Messrs. Spink & Son, asking them where they had obtained the seal and what they knew of its history.

Dr. Bernard C. Steiner reported to the Committee on Publications that the 34th Volume of the Maryland Archives had been printed and thereupon presented a copy to the Society.

Upon elections duly held, the following who were nominated at the preceding meeting of the Society were duly elected as active members:

The Recording Secretary stated that the following deaths in the membership of the Society had occurred since the last meeting:

Michael A. Mullin, June 9th,

Dr. Christopher Johnston, June 25th,
George H. Gist, July 14th,

Henry C. Kirk, August 1st,

Major Jos. G. Pangborn, August 15th,

Olivera Andrews, August 17th,

Wilson M. Cary, August 28th,

Charles C. Homer, September 14th,

Edgar H. Gans, September 20th.

Mr. Cohen thereupon then spoke of the heavy loss which the Society had sustained in loss by death in its membership during the past summer. He dwelt upon the very valuable services to the Society which Mr. Mullin, Dr. Johnston, Mr. Cary, Charles C. Homer and others who had recently died had rendered during so many years and touched upon his intense feeling of personal bereavement.

Mr. Cohen called attention to the change in the Constitution of the Society by which the status of life membership had been created, and suggested that Mr. Isaac F. Nicholson's gift of $1,000 of sometime ago be recognized by declaring Mr. Nicholson a life member of the Society.

On motion of Mr. Mendes Cohen, seconded by Mr. Richard H. Spencer, and unanimously passed, Mr. Isaac F. Nicholson, a member of this Society, was declared to be a Life Member of this Society.

Dr. Bernard C. Steiner then presented the paper of the evening entitled "Fragments of My Life and Times," by the late Hon. Henry Winter Davis.

Meeting of November 9, 1914.-The regular monthly meeting of the Society for the month of November was called to order with President Warfield in the Chair.

The Corresponding Secretary called attention to such of his correspondence during the preceding month as he thought deserved special attention. The resignations of Mr. John M. Carter and Mr. Wm. P. Harvey, as members of the Society, were read and accepted.

Upon mo

A letter was read from Mr. Isaac F. Nicholson. tion of Mr. Richard H. Spencer, seconded by General Andrew C. Trippe, it was moved that the letter of Mr. Nicholson be spread upon the minutes in recognition of the fact that he is our first life member, and that he was so declared to be a life member in grateful appreciation of his donation of one thousand dollars ($1,000) to this Society in November, 1910, to form part of an endowment fund for the use of the Society. The motion was passed unanimously. The letter is as follows: