Volume 57, Preface 53 View pdf image (33K) |
Introduction. liii one year, he petitioned the court for his freedom, which was granted upon his giving security for the payment of the balance of the sheriff's fees (p. 580). At the February, 1667/8, court William Oglethorpe complained that he had hired himself out to Thomas Wynn for eight months for 800 pounds of to- bacco, and that the latter had given him no rest until he had signed “a Con- dicon for 4 years”, under which the petitioner was to have good Sufficient dyett lodging Washing Cow calf e and Clothing”, which agreement, or condi- tion of indenture, although Oglethorpe had served two years, Wynn had not complied with. The court ordered that Wynn pay Oglethorpe 950 pounds of tobacco and deliver up the condition or agreement (p. 254). In a recorded lease, dated December 1, 1666, of a tract called The Fox on Bretton's Bay, St. Mary's County, from George Reynolds to Thomas Covant, part of the consideration was the delivery to Reynolds by Covant of “two able men Servts betweene the age of Eighteene and eight & twenty yeares”, or, if this were not possible, 5000 pounds of tobacco and five barrels of corn. This gives us 2500 pounds of tobacco as the fair valuation of an able-bodied man servant at that time (pp. 208-210). At a Baltimore County Court held March 13, 1665/6, Edward Jessop com- plained to the court, that although by the decease of his mistress he was free by the terms of his indenture, his master Colonel Nathaniel Utie still held him in servitude. The county court gave him his freedom and Colonel Utie appealed to the Provincial Court. The case came up at three successive sessions, April, June, and October, 1666, hut Utie not appearing at any of these hearings, Jessop was finally declared free (pp. 8o, 110, 117, 129). From another source it is learned that Mary, the wife of Nathaniel Utie, had been murdered by a negro slave on Sep. 30, 1665 (Arch. Md. XLIX; 489-490). Why two servants, Katherine and Jeane, belonging respectively to Thomas Dent and Patrick Forrest, both of St. George's hundred, St. Mary's County, charged with bastardy, should have been indicted in the Provincial Court rather than in the county court, which was the usual procedure, is not explained, although the higher court, of course could assume jurisdiction whenever it wished. The record does not disclose their fate. Perhaps they were turned over to the county court and sentenced there to the usual lashing imposed in such cases (p. 310). John Moli, and three others, probably ship owners, sued Thomas Cooper, the administrator of the merchant Thomas Freeman, on an account which included the passage-money for sixty-nine servants to be paid for upon their arrival at 850 pounds of tobacco, or about £3-10-0, each—a total of 58,650 pounds of tobacco or £344. It is of interest to note that tobacco in this case was valued at one penny a pound (p. 416). This was a large transaction in- volving, as it did, some £344 sterling. The Provincial Court while having concurrent jurisdiction with the county courts in many matters relating to indentured servants, on occasion showed irritation when many such cases were brought before it. In these records we find the higher court on several occasions determining the age of servants, the duration of their unexpired term of servitude, and the time added as pen- |
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Volume 57, Preface 53 View pdf image (33K) |
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