viii Letter of Transmission.

cleaving and riving staves, shingles, etc. Comparatively few criminal actions
were tried before the Court. A spirit of fairness is shown toward Indians (vide,
p. 199). Occasionally, the title to real estate comes into litigation. The Court
Baron of St. Gabriel's Manor is mentioned (p. 94). The coming of the
Quakers, Josias Cole and Thomas Thurston (p. 104), occupies the Court's
attention. There is a curious reference to a school (p. 100).

A fourth Provincial Court in 1658 was summoned for December and was
held at St. Clement's Manor (p. 181). A case of alleged cruelty to a negro
servant, causing his death, was then tried (p. 190). The next session began at
St. Marie's on Wednesday, February 23, 1658/9 and lasted until March 3.

In the noteworthy inventory of goods stolen from Mr. Overzee's house, most
of the terms are fairly clear in meaning (p. 207). Say was a cloth of fine
texture resembling serge. A safeguard was an outer petticoat for women's
wear, intended to save their clothes from dust, etc. A bottom of thread is
thread wound on a core or nucleus.

The material which Mary Clocker wrapped around her may have been
poult-de-soie, a heavy corded silk material used for dresses (p. 211). The
story is a pathetic one. Mrs. Overzee apparently died in childbirth and Mrs.
Williams and Mrs. Clocker took advantage of the confusion in the household
to steal a great deal of linen. When the trial took place, they were convicted
and sentenced to be put to death (pp/ 223, 225). An amnesty, however, saved
their lives (p. 258) and afterwards Clocker and the Sheriff had a controversy
as to the payment of the fees for the imprisonment. A case arising out of this
one was an unsuccessful accusation of theft boat, or attempting to compound a
felony (p. 245), against Simon Overzee.

Other interesting trials of that time were those of Dr. Lumbrozo for
blasphemy, snowing the tolerance of the government (p. 203); of Simon
Overzee for punishing a negro slave, who died afterwards (p. 204); and of
Mrs. Fenwick, as to the ownership of a horse (p. 218). In this horse case,
John Bigger appears, the first known horse trader in the Province (p. 219).

The estate of one of the men killed in the battle of the Severn came before
the Court (p. 220). Cornwalleys, that great litigant, lost a boat, as he
alleged, through David Ferreira's fault (p. 273). Many attachments were laid
against the estates of men who had left the Province, especially against that of
Capt. William Mitchell (e. g., p. 227).

When Robert Holt was tried for bigamy and Rev. William Wilkinson was
alleged to have been an accessory in remarrying him (pp. 228, 244), the
prisoners alleged that the jury was a " very weak one to go upon so weighty a
business .... as life and death." There were few in Court who were not