improper inclusion in that such regulation should be by means of instructions 
only. 205 The act was therefore disallowed in January, 1717/8. 206 But, as 
we shall see, this extreme view was not stoutly maintained. The height of 
legislative caution is seen in a 1772 Grenada act which enacted that appeals 
from the common law and chancery courts were to be regulated by the royal 
instructions, saving the royal prerogative of allowing appeals or writs of error 
in any case by special order. 207 
Acts in royal colonies regulatory of the appellate process fall into three categories. 
Some follow the instructional pattern, some reproduce in part English 
statutes, and others are sui generis. Considering the first group, let us examine 
the legislative career of Maryland as a royal colony. Until 1699 the appellate 
system of this colony was regulated by a 1695 act. 208 In that year the earlier 
act was repealed, but the appellate regulation established thereby was substantially 
re-enacted. From the Provincial Court an "appeal" or writ of error 
to the Governor and Council was provided when the debt or damages recovered 
exceeded sterling or 10,000 pounds of tobacco. Appeal from any 
chancery decree to the Governor and Council was allowed without any minimum 
limitation. In the case of appellate affirmance of Provincial Court judgments, 
appeal to the King in Council was denied unless judgment exceeded 
sterling or 60,000 pounds of tobacco. Further appeal to the King in 
Council in chancery causes was also available when the original debt or 
damages exceeded the above minimums. 2o9 There was no conflict with the 
royal instructions, since they contained no regulation of appeals to the Governor 
and Council and established a ,£3OO minimum for conciliar appeals. 210 
In November, 1699, a July act of the same year for ascertaining the laws of 
the province was disallowed by the King in Council. 211 Allegedly this disallowance 
was understood in the province as in effect disallowing the above 
act regulating appeals. 212 At any rate, a 1704 act for appeals and regulating 
writs of error re-enacted the provisions of the 1699 law. 213 In England it was 
apparently presumed that the 1699 act was in force, for 1703 instructions 
pointedly omitted any minimum for appeals to the Governor and Council. 214 
The appellate system continued to function under this 1704 act until 1711. In 
that year complaint was made to England by the President, Council, and 
Assembly of the province objecting to the governor's custody of the seal, 
because on appeal from the Chancery Court he judged his own decree. The 
205 CSP, Col, 1716-17, #422. 
206 pc 2/86/87. 
211 CSP, Col 1699, #1018. For the rationale 
of this disallowance see ibid., #979, 1009. 
For the disallowed act see 22 Md. Archives, 
558. 
207 1 Laws Grenada and the Grenadines 
(1774), 144, 235. 
208 See supra, p. 87. 
2 * 2 co 5/727/251-55- 
213 26 Md. Archives, 286. 
209 22 Md. Archives, 469. 
210 See 1 Labaree, Royal Instructions, $446. 
21i 1 Labaree, Royal Instructions, #448.