The Archives of Maryland as Illustrating the Spirit of the Times of the Early Colonists: A Paper Read Before the Maryland Historical Society, January 25, 1886, Issues 22-27
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... By his wife Colonel Thomas Bozman acquired a large estate in Talbot, upon a portion of which, subsequently, but long after his death, known as Belleville, he settled, and this became the seat of the family, passing through a collateral branch from its possession as late as 1874. He occupied many places of honor and emolument in the county and province. He was High Sheriff, a Commissioner and Justice of the Peace, the Deputy Surveyor General, Deputy Commissary General for the Eastern Shore, Colonel of Militia and a Vestryman of St. Peter's Parish.11-1 Few men of his day in Maryland were held in higher esteem. ...
11-1 Some of these official titles suggest to us of the present little of the honor and dignity they represented to men of a former time, for apart from the fact that the offices they designate were once of greater importance than they now are, it should be noted that in a society essentially aristocratic and yet forbidden to use the only symbols of nobility that were known, as was the case in provincial Maryland, official position conferred titular rank. Thus, names and places that would now be disdained by men of good social standing were sought after with avidity, as much for the distinction they conferred as for the emoluments they secured, and as the offices were largely monopolized by certain families, the titles assumed a kind of hereditary character.
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[No sources given.]
