lviii     Early Maryland County Courts.

           12,000 in 1660 while probably rather too large, may not be far out of the way.
           It is not unlikely that the population figures for the second half of the seven
           teenth century will prove to be about as follows:
               8,000   1650  11,000   1660 16,000    1670
              20,000   1680  25,000   1690 32,000    1700

             As would be expected, there are constant references to horses, cattle, sheep
           and swine. There had been such an increase in the number of horses running
           wild over the plantations, that in 1671 the Assembly passed an act prohibit
           ing their importation (Arch. Md. 281-282, 333-334). At the November
           1672 session of the Talbot County Court, two cases involving the violation
           of this law were heard (Arch. Md. liv, 541-542). Before the passage of the
           act of 1671 Joseph Wickes had brought action for trespass at the November
           1669 session of the Talbot Court against William Osborn and others who were
           driving a herd of seventy-one horses, and had pastured them upon Wickes'
           land (Arch. Md. liv, 452-453). These were doubtless "the Long Iland horses
           Coursares “, with whom a certain Jno. Groves had come into the Province in
           the year 1669, as a servant of Robert Story of Long Island, as he so declared
           at on August 1671 Talbot County Court (Arch. Md. liv, 502-503). Prob
           ably of this same group of coursers, or horse dealers, of Long Island, was
           Denis White of New York who brought suit at the August 1670 session of this
           same court in the matter of a disputed horse deal, and who at the March 1671
           court, then described as a “horse-courser of New England “, was charged with
           being the father of a bastard child by a servant girl, Ann Yorke (Arch. Md. liv,
           470, 488). Mention has already been made of suits to recover wagers on
           horse races (pp. xxv-xxvi).
             The coarseness of manners and language already referred to as prevalent
           in the mid-seventeenth century, especially among the poorer freemen and ser
           vant class, is to be found in the testimony of witnesses recorded in these county
           records. Notable examples of this are to be seen in the following Charles County
           cases: Stratton vs. Turner (p. 31), Nevillvs. Baker (pp. 231-234), Baker vs.
           Thompson (pp. 234-237), Lumbrozo vs. Goold (pp. 355-357), and Dodd vs.
           Neville (pp. 375-480).
             There is occasional mention of stores for the sale of merchandize. One was
           kept by Capt. \Villiam Batten in St. Mary's County; one by Dr. John Meekes
           of Charles County (p. 416) ; and one by Mr. Utie at Severn, probably Capt.
           Nathaniel Utie later of Baltimore County (Arch. Md. liv, 71). Merchandise
           was often brought into the Province and sold by ship captains direct to the
           planters. What was obviously an instance of this kind is disclosed by Edward
           Richardson, merchant of London then in the Province, recording under date
           of May 13, 1664, some forty-six bills of sale due by various prominent planters,
           either to Edmund Custis & Co., merchants, of London, or to Robert Custis,
           merchant, of Rotterdam, and Capt. Lancelot Anderson of Hull (pp. 466-476,
           516-5 18). These bills of debt, or promissory notes, were all dated in the spring
           of 1664, when the Custis vessel, commanded by Capt. Anderson, was doubtless
           at anchor in Charles County waters, and were made payable five or six months








           later.