Early Maryland County Courts.        lvii


      Indians, payments to the Governor, and other general expenses. The public
      levies payable by each county were often fixed by special acts of the Assembly
      (Arch. Md. i, 456, 505, 541; ii, 151, 227, 235, 338-341). These levies under
      the acts of 1650 and 1654, were raised by a poli tax upon male freemen and
      male white servants, and upon negro slaves of both sexes, but the early acts
      do not give the ages at which these three groups were taxable (Arch. Md. i, 298,
      342). By the act of 1662, taxables were all males over sixteen born in the
      Province, all imported male servants over ten, and all slaves of both sexes over
      ten (p. 224; Arch. Md. i, 449). That the authority of the county courts, with
      out action of the Assembly, to levy a poll tax had been questioned, is recited
      in an act passed by the Assembly in 1671, by which such authority is explicitly
      given them, and is reiterated in the act of 1674 (Arch. Md. ii, 273, 399). The
      poll tax is of especial interest as showing the changes in population year by
      year in several counties. The levies give the total amounts to be raised, and
      these divided by the number of taxables determine the amount of the poll tax.
        The various elements which made up the population of Maryland in the sev
      enteenth century are clearly brought out by chance references in these county
      records. In addition to the dominant English, we find mention of Scotchmen,
      Weishnien, and Irishmen, one of the latter not being able to make his speech
      understood in court (p. 119). Swedes and Dutch who had come in from the
      Delaware are especially evident on the Eastern Shore, including “ Scout”
      [Schout] Garrett Vansweringen (Arch. Md. liv, 381). The Portugese Jew,
      Jacob Lumbrozo, and a “Moor of Barbary “, John Baptista (p. 74), French
      men, Indians, and negroes, are other ingredients of the melting pot. The
      nationality of a certain Clora Adora is not revealed to us. The records
      show considerable trade with New England, with mention of numerous ships,
      and of merchants from Rhode Island, New York and elsewhere, as well as
      slave traders from Boston. One is struck with the close relation between Mary
      land and Virginia, and the very large number of settlers who had come from
      Virginia into the Province during the first four or five decades following the
      settlement.
        There are no accurate figures before 1701 as to the population of Maryland
      and of its several counties, when Gov. Blakiston in that year estimated the
      total population, including servants and negroes (but apparently not Indians)
      at 32,258 (Arch. Md. xxv, 255). An intelligent student by making use of the
      material now available through the publication of these four county records,
      and with data obtainable in the Land Office at Annapolis, should be able to
      arrive at fairly accurate figures as to the population, decade by decade, during
      the seventeenth century in the several counties. These county records not only
      disclose the number of taxables given year by year in the county levies, but
      also the names of the registrants of livestock marks and the names of con
      tract and unindentured servants registered in court. At the Land Office an
      examination of the patent records year by year would reveal the number of new
      patentees, and down to the year 1663 the number of headrights under which
      land was claimed. In the absence of reliable figures based upon such a study,
      the guess of the United States Census Bureau made in 1852 of a population of