The Act allowed for the construction of the State House, King William's School, and St. Anne's, though due to the limited work force and insufficient funds, all of the projects were finished much later than expected.

In 1694 the capital of Maryland was moved to Annapolis and the royal governor, Francis Nicholson, laid out a street plan centered on two circles, the larger for the State House and the smaller for the church, where St. Anne's is situated to this day.

The parish also became the focus of a dual patronage scandal in 1776-68, under its 17th rector, Bennet Allen and Governor Horatio Sharpe.

Allen also acquired the living at St. James Herring Bay and attempted to hire it out, contrary to Maryland law and the vestry's instructions.

Allen ultimately gave up St. Anne's (but not St. James) upon securing the most lucrative parish in the Colony, All Saints Church in Frederick, Maryland, although that vestry locked him out shortly after his arrival and forced him to flee to Philadelphia and hire a curate, before returning to England during the American Revolutionary War.

[4][5] Nearly half of St. Anne's rectors, 21, served in the pre-Revolutionary period; many evidently left for better pay at other parishes in the region.

[2] Additionally, St. Anne's was often referred to by writers of the time as a "barn" rather than a "proper place of worship."