xiv        Early Maryland County Courts.

           settlement, civil suits where not more than three thousand pounds of tobacco,
           equivalent to about £20 sterling, was involved, although later in the colonial
           period this limit was raised. Felonies and other serious criminal offences pun
           ishable by death or maiming, or civil suits involving upwards of three thousand
           pounds of tobacco, went at once to the Provincial Court for trial. Cases in
           the county courts might be tried and adjudged by the commissioners themselves,
           or before a jury. Although the county courts were limited to civil suits involv
           ing not over 3,000 pounds of tobacco, the Provincial Court at first had con
           current jurisdiction with them even in this group of cases. The Provincial Court
           at its February 19, 1660/1, sessions, ordered, that to prevent “divers vexatious
           suits—for small causes “ coming before it “ no Suite shalbe originally com
           menced in the Provll Court for anything under the vallue of fifteene hundred
           Pounds Tob “, and directed that thereafter such suits be brought in the county
           courts (Arch. Md. xli, 414). In 1676 an act was passed providing that suits
           for debt under this amount might be determined by two justices of a county
           court (Arch. Md. ii, 537-538).
             Civil suits were ordinarily tried before the court, although either party to the
           suit, or the court itself, could demand a jury trial. In criminal cases in the
           provincial period the jury was the judge of the facts alone, unlike the present
           system in Maryland under which it is the judge of both the law and the facts.
           The use of juries in the county courts will be discussed at more length here
           after (pp. xviii-xxiv), as will the question of appeals (pp. iv-xxv).
            The commissioners in addition to the judicial functions which they exer
           cised, were also the administrators of the civil affairs of the county. They
           would appear to have fixed the public levy and county levy, and the amount of
           the poll tax. They arranged with the sheriff for holding the election for mem
           bers of the Lower House, forming with him what was sometimes called a
           court of election. They authorized public expenditures such as the transpor
           tation and maintenance of the members of the Lower House at St. Mary's City;
           the pay of soldiers for service against the Indians; the salaries of ferry-
           keepers; the care of the poor, the sick, and those of unsound mind, any of
           whom they might exempt from the payment of the poll-tax; they provided for
           the payment of bounties on wolves and wildcats; and fixed sundry other minor
           local expenditures. They had the legal custody of orphans, the selection of
           guardians, and the binding out of orphan apprentices. They fixed the term of
           servitude and determined the age of servants who entered the Province with
           out indentures. They appointed constables (p. xlii), surveyors of highways
           or road supervisors, ferry-keepers, and the keepers of the county standards of
           weights and measures. After 1661 they submitted three names to the Gover
           nor from which the sheriff was selected (p. xxxix-xl), although at times during
           the civil wars the court seems to have selected the sheriffs directly. They licensed
           ordinary keepers. They designated routes for highways and paths, requiring
           the county taxables to furnish labor upon them. The part which the county
           court played in the selection of its clerks is discussed later (pp. xxxviii-xxxix).
            Appointments of justices to office were usually effected by the issuance of a
           new commission which included not only the names of those that the Governor