A PETITION TO THE KING IN COUNCIL. FRANCIS BREREWOOD, ESQ; AGAINST LORD BALTIMORE; RELATING TO AN ESTATE IN MARYLAND

[np, 1762. Folio sheet, folded to 9-3/4" x 15." 3, [1 docket] pp. Old folds, with several separations expertly repaired without loss. Else Very Good, with caption title, as issued. A contemporary manuscript note in a blank margin recites English law that "no man shall be put out of his land... but by due process of law."

This rare document is captioned, "To the King's most Excellent Majesty in Council, The Humble Petition of Francis Brerewood, of St. Martin's in the Fields in the County of Middlesex, Esq:" The Petition traces Francis Brerewood's entitlement to a 10,000 acre "Tract of Land called the Lord Baltimore's Gift, lying in the said Province of Maryland, in Baltimore County, on the North Side of the Main Falls of Gunpowder River." Title to the Land devolved by gift, will, and various leases and devises from Lord Baltimore to Lady Margaret, his wife, in 1713; by Lady Margaret's Will to her grand-daughter Charlotte Calvert, in 1731; and then from Charlotte, through marriage and various leases and devises, to the Petitioner, Francis Brerewood.
But Lord Baltimore and his agents have sought "to defraud and deprive your Petitioner" of the Land. They have seized and illegally kept for themselves the rents and profits belonging to Brerewood. His Petition urges the King "to interpose the Royal Authority against the arbitrary Proceedings of the said Lord Baltimore," and to restore Brerewood to his rightful ownership.
Not located on ESTC, OCLC, or the online catalogues of Johns Hopkins, the University of Maryland, or AAS as of June 2020. See Ellis & Stuart, 'The Calvert Papers. Calendar and Guide to the Microform Edition' page 34, noting "Francis Brerewood's bill of complaint against Frederick, Lord Baltimore (12 February 1762)." [Maryland Historical Society: 1989].