xvi                  Kent County.

        and 1659, where he appears as successful in suits brought against him by John
        Salter to obtain possession of the tract Beaver Neck, on Kent Island.
          Joseph Wickes, who was presiding justice of Kent from 1676 to 1683, was
        a member of the court as early as 1652. He was a colorful figure and was
        unquestionably a man of considerable force. He was in Maryland in 1650 and
        was almost certainly one of the group of Virginia Puritans who came here
        in 1649-1650. He was closely associated with Thomas Hynson, who is known
        to have been one of that group. His wife was a Virginian (p. 113). Wickes
        first appears on the Kent court, January 12, 1651/2, and was one of those who
        engaged his fidelity to the Commonwealth of England in 1652 (p. 5). There
        is little question that he was sympathetic with the Puritan party, as he was
        reappointed to the bench by the Commissioners of the Parliament, July 31,
        1652 (p. 14). He lived at first on Love Point, Kent Island, which was surveyed
        for him in 1652, and was living on the island as late as 1664 (p.365), but
        later he may have moved to “ Wickcliffe “, on Eastern Neck Island, with which
        the Wickes family was long associated. In 1656 he was the center of a scandal,
        and was brought before his own court as a result of statements made by
        Thomas Ringgold in a bastardy case. This case is described in much detail
        in these Kent County records, and shows that he was suspended and absent
        for several months from his own court (pp. 38, 66, 69, 72, 78, 84, 85, 113,
        121, 127). At the time of the Fendall “rebellion” he and his friend, Thomas
        Hynson, were members of the outlawed Assembly called by Fendall in March
        1660, and for this when proprietary authority was reasserted, they were de-
        barred for seven years from holding office, might not serve in the Assembly
        at any time without pardon, and were obliged to give bond for good behavior
        (Arch. Md. iii, 404-405). On November i8, 1671, Wickes was again ap-
        pointed a member of the Kent County Court (p. 317), where he probably
        continued to serve until he and two other members of the court were on
        November 7, 1683, upon the complaint of Major James Ringgold “turned out
        of the Commission for Kent County “ for certain irregularities in their acts as
        justices, and ordered to give bond for their appearance at the next Provincial
        Court (Arch. Md. zvii, 169-172).
          Thomas Ringgold (1611-1672), who was one of the justices of Kent, settled
        on Kent Island in 1650 with his two Sons John and James. He was of the
        group of Puritans who came up from Virginia in the years 1649-1650, where
        he had appeared as a witness to a Lower Norfolk County, Virginia, deed, July
        15, 1649. In 1650 he patented the tract, “ Parson's Point” on Kent Island.
        He was a justice of Kent, January 12, 1651/2, and of the quorum, the same
        year he signed the oath of fidelity to the Commonwealth of England (p. 4).
        Ringgold seems to have been a man of force and independence. In the case of
        Thomas Ward vs. Thomas Hynson, tried before the Kent court in December
        1656, his vote is recorded as “wholly dissenting” from the opinion of the rest
        of the bench, which was favorable to Ward (p. 77). The Kent County records
        show long continued enmity between Ringgold and Joseph Wickes, another
        prominent member of the court. On one occasion they exchanged approbrious
        epithets, Ringgold calling Wickes a “whore master “, and the latter retorting