xxvi        Early Maryland County Courts.

          Saturday night “, in which a number of prominent planters figured. Those in
          the game who most concern us were Thomas Gerrard, Lord of St. Clement's
          Manor, a former member of the Governor's Council, and a certain Daniel
          Johnson. Gerrard lost to Johnson who was paid in part by a bill given at Ger
          rard's request by the merchant, Samuel Smith, who may also have been in
          the game, or only a spectator. Smith died soon after, and Johnson recently a
          servant, sued his administrator, Capt. Robert Slye, also a former member
          of the Governor's Council, who refused payment of the bill on the ground that
          there had been no consideration, and also that the bill “was passed on a
          Sunday “. The court ordered payment (pp. 277, 295-296). Perhaps the game
          lasted after midnight, or the old custom of beginning the Sabbath at sundown
          on Saturday may have been invoked by the defendant.
            At the June 1671 session of the Talbot County Court the suit of Stevenson vs.
          Drywood came up. Matthew Ward, as attorney for the defendant, asked that
          the case be postponed, promising to bring before the court “a statute of Eng
          land that Play debts above the value of 40s is not pleadable “. His request for
          delay was granted, and as no further reference to the suit is to be found, it is
          probable that it was dropped, or possibly settled out of court (Arch. Md. liv,
          499).
            A bet made on a horse race came before the Talbot County Court at the
          January, 1672, sitting. This race for a purse of 1000 pounds of tobacco was
          arranged and run between John Browne and George Hurlocke, Browne win
          ning. It was shown that Dr. William Hemsley, a prominent planter of “Peach
          Blossom “, and a former sheriff and court clerk, had made himself liable to
          pay Browne a thousand pounds of tobacco should Hurlocke lose. The court
          ordered Hemsley to pay his bet with costs of suit (Arch. Md. liv, 594). In a
          similar case which came before the Talbot Court at its February, 1672/3,
          session, Thomas Hallings sued Peter Whaples for 200 pounds of tobacco, lost
          on “a wagger at a Horse Rasse “. The defendant answered that as such it was
          not actionable, and the court ordered the writ be abated, the plaintiff “not prov
          ing his actionable “ (Arch. Md. liv, 550-551).
            Suits for slander or for “defamation “, as they were usually called, were
          perhaps next in frequency among civil cases to those for debt and difficulties
          between masters and servants. The act of 1654 provided that the offender be
          assessed damages, not only by way of satisfaction to the party injured, but to
          the public for breach of the peace (Arch. Md. i, 343). Damages in such cases
          were defined and limited by the act of 1669 (Arch. Md. ii, 201). These defama
          tion suits were very frequently brought by women, or by their husbands, for
          slanderous remarks involving the sexual behavior of the women. But there
          were various other causes of defamation which came before the court. Thus
          in one instance a widow brought suit against the Rev. Francis Doughtie of
          Charles County, and several members of his congregation for insinuating that
          she was a witch, a story to be told in more detail later (pp. liii, lv). An amus
          ing defamation case is one in which a recent widow, about to remarry, was
          incensed by a letter sent to this same minister, signed by a helpless blind man,
          declaring that the lady was his “before God “. She at once instituted suit