Maryland State Archives

Nov. 1781, Ch. 22  An Act to Regulate Ferries

• First law after the Constitution of 1776
• County justices, annually at March court terms, to grant a license to any county inhabitant to keep a public ferry, "at any place within their county now used as such, if the said justices shall think that a public ferry ought there to be kept and established".
• County justices to set ferriage rates and determine the kind and number of boats and number of hands to be employed for each ferry.
• Each licensee required to post a performance bond of 50 pounds current money and pay 5 shillings current money to court clerk for taking the bond and making out the license and copy of ferriage rates.
• If proprietor of place used as a public ferry fails to obtain a license or to rent the ferry to a person approved by the court, the county justices shall issue warrant to sheriff to summon a jury and surveyor to condemn the land needed for the ferry and determine its rental value, not to exceed 3 acres. The land "shall become the property of the county for ever". The court may contract for new construction or repairs, at county expense, annually rent the ferry to anyone deemed proper to hold the license, and pay an annual rent to the land owner.
• "[N]othing in this act shall ... prohibit the county courts, as heretofore practised, from agreeing with persons to keep ferries, but in such case they shall take recognizance, and ascertain" ferriage rates.

• "Whereas doubts have arisen whether the several county courts of this state have power to contract for the keeping of such ferries as they many think necessary, at the county expense;"
• Such contracts authorized, with "the price so contracted for [to] be paid by and levied on the county in the same manner as other county charges". Such ferry keepers to post bond and be subject to other provisions of 1781 act.
• Courts prohibited from establishing new ferries.

• "Whereas since the passage of the original act ..., divers individuals have set up ferries, which have been found beneficial to the public, and ought to be regulated by law, and it may happen, that by the alteration of old roads, or the laying our of new roads, leading to creeks and rivers, it may be necessary to establish new ferries, in order to render such road serviceable to the community, and in every such case such new ferries ought also to be regulated by law".
• County courts given authority to declare private ferries as beneficial to the public, thus subjecting the ferry keepers to the 1781 law and its supplements.
• County courts given authority to establish new ferry sites on the basis of altered or new roads, to be governed by and subject to the 1781 law and its supplements.
• If proprietor of place used as a public ferry fails to or cannot (as a minor, etc.) obtain a license or to rent the ferry to a person approved by the court, the county justices shall issue warrant to sheriff to summon a jury and surveyor to condemn the land needed for the ferry and determine its rental value, not to exceed 2 acres. The land "shall become the property of the county for ever".The court may contract for new construction or repairs, at county expense, annually rent the ferry to anyone deemed proper to hold the license. County levy courts responsible for paying those costs, including the annual rent. Any landowners, unable to operate or rent a ferry due to a legal disability, could reobtain title to the land within 3 years after removal of the disability by paying all the costs incurred by the county.

• County courts may fine ferry keepers, convicted of non-performance of duties, any amount not over $100.

• SO and WO per Acts of 1822, Ch. 148
• AA per Acts of 1824, Ch. 109
• DO per Acts of 1825, Ch. 5

[The licensing of ferry keepers was not a money maker for the counties. Ferries were considered public services, somewhate similar to roads. No license fee was required. Bond was posted, but only to compel compliance with regulations set by the county court, and later the county government. The court set the ferriage rates to prevent excessive fees and favoritism, but the moneys so collected belonged to the ferry keeper. The county was essentially contracting, by license or specific contract, with people to operate the ferries that benefited the public and were thus subject to laws and regulations. Nothing in the law prevented someone from establishing a private ferry, and the preamble to the 1799 law clearly indicates that many did exist.

I have not determined when the general law found in the 1860 code was enacted because the indexes do not indicate such legislation and the 1860 code does not contain references. I suspect the law is passed after adoption of the Constitution of 1851, and may be found only after the appropriate session laws are incorporated into the Archives of Maryland series. pvm 12/11/00]