xxii                Talbot County.

        William Hambleton, and Philip Stephenson (Arch. Md. iii, 491). Nothing
        further is heard of Curtis, who probably did not take his seat, nor does Hamble-
        ton sit until 1668/9, and another commission issued July 4, 1665, omits the
        names of both Curtis and Hambleton, and commissions Carpenter, Stephenson,
        and Thomas Powell to the court, (p. 386; Arch. Md. iii, 529). On Febru-
        ary 16, 1668/9, Sibery and Hambleton sat for the first time on the Talbot
        Court (p. 430). On Dec. 17, 1670, a commission was appointed with Richard
        Woolman, William Coursey, Philemon Lloyd and Thomas South of the
        quorum, and with Thomas Hynson, Seth Foster, Philip Stephenson, James
        Ringgold, William Hambleton, Jonathan Sibery, Richard Gorsuch, Edward
        Rowe (Roe), and John Wells associates (p. 353). On Mar. 2, 1675/6, a new
        commission was issued with Richard Woolman as the presiding judge, and
        William Coursey, Philernon Lloyd, and Edward Mann the other justices of
        the quorum, and with them as associate justices, Thomas Hynson, Philip
        Stephenson, Jonathan Sibery, Richard Gorsuch, George Cowley, William
        Bishop, and Anthony Mayle (Arch. Md. xv, 70-71). The personnel of the
        Talbot Court during this period is of interest.
          Richard Woolman ( -1681), who was the presiding justice from the
        creation of the court in 1662 until his death in 1681, was one of the group
        of Puritans who came up from lower Virginia in 1649-1650, and settled first
        in Anne Arundel County. The records of Lower Norfolk County, Virginia,
        show him as living there in November 1648. He was a member of the Anne
        Arundel County Court in 1657, but soon after this moved to the Eastern Shore.
        He not only sat on the Talbot court for twenty years, but during much of this
        time represented that county in the Assembly. We find him successively men-
        tioned as lieutenant and captain of the Talbot Militia (Arch. Md. iii, 466.) At
        the June, 1664, Talbot Court a certain Thomas Wilkinson, under suspicion of
        being a hog-stealer, who had spread rumors that the presiding justice was not
        in this respect without sin, was brought before the court by Woolman on the
        charge of defamation. He apologized “in oppen court and upon his knees “,
        expressing his regret that he had wrongfully defamed the justice (pp. 369-370).
          Captain William Coursey ( -1684), was a brother of John Coursey
        ( -1661) who was Clerk, Sheriff, and Justice of Kent in 166o and 1661,
        and of Councillor Henry Coursey (c. 1625-1697) of Talbot. All three brothers
        were probably of the group of Virginia Puritans who emigrated to Maryland
        in 1649-1650. We find William Coursey Sheriff of Talbot County, 1656-
        1659; Justice of Kent, 1660/1661, and of Talbot from 1662 to 168i, and
        probably until his death in 1684; and Sheriff of Talbot in 1669. In 168o he
        became the Presiding Justice of Talbot.
          Seth Foster ( 1675), who as disclo3cd by these records, sat on the Talbot
        Court from the time of its organization in 1662 until 1673, lived on Great
        Choptank Island and was a large landholder, not only there, but on Kent Island
        and Chester River. His religion is not known, but one of his daughters married
        Vincent Lowe, the Catholic Attorney-General. These county records show
        that Foster, like his colleague Woolman, was the subject of slander. At the
        August, 1665, court he sued a certain Robert Knapp for defamation in having