Talbot County.           xxiii

   declared that he was “a hogg stealing fellow from his Cradle “, whereby de-
   clared Seth, “hee is disabled to Execute his office” of justice (p. 383). Al-
   though Knapp humbly apologized in court, this would not appear to have
   satisfied either Mr. or Mrs. Foster, for Knapp testified a little later, that “ Mr.
   Seth Foster and his wife most violently set upon—and beat him soe much that
   yor Petitioner was forced to keep his bed” (pp. 383-385).
    Major James Ringgold ( -1686), a member of the first Talbot court, was
   the son of Thomas Ringgold (1611-1672) of Kent Island, who figured so
   prominently in the public life of that county (p. xvi). This James Ringgold
   married Mary, the daughter of Robert Vaughan ( -1668), the noted Com-
   mander of Kent (p. xiv). He was a member of the Talbot County Court from
   its establishment in 1662, but his name does not appear in this Talbot record
   after the June 20, 1671, session. He is later spoken of as of Kent County,
   and was in 1683 a member of the Kent court (Arch. Md. xvii, 169-172). He
   may either have moved or have changed his county with the shifting of county
   lines.
    Thomas South (1618-1674), who was on the first Talbot commission, has
   already been mentioned as the Presiding Justice of Kent in 1674 (p. xv).
   It is difficult to say where his home really was, for within a few years we find
   him at various times justice of Kent, Talbot, and Cecil counties, possibly due
   to changes in county lines, rather than to changes in his actual residence.
    Thomas Hynson, Jr. ( -1679), who was commissioned a justice on the
   first Talbot County Court, was a son of Thomas Hynson, Sr. (1620-1667),
   the justice of Kent (p. xvii). He was still on the court in 1676. At the March,
   1663/4, session he was suspended from the court for a year and a day for
   fornication, and at the August, 1665, court demanded and received an apology
   from his fellow justice, James Ringgold, for constant taunting references to
   his “weakness” (pp. 366, 371, 387). The enmity between the Hynsons and
   Ringgolds was hereditary. Hynson was sheriff of Talbot in 1666 (Arch. Md.
   iii, 541).
    For several years after the establishment of Talbot County there were two
   members of the Governor's Council resident in Talbot who frequently sat on
   the county court, and who by virtue of their membership on the Council were
   entitled to precedence over the local justices. These were Edward Lloyd (c.
   1620-1696) and Henry Coursey (c. 1625-1697). When they sat on the county
   court their names, heading the court, are followed by the title, “ Esq “, while
   the county justices are simply styled “Mr “. Lloyd sat seven times on the
   Talbot County Court between 1662 and 1668, and Coursey some twenty times
   between 1662 and 1673. When both were present at the same session Lloyd
   outranked Coursey, his name appearing first on the record. Both were very
   prominent men in provincial affairs and little need be added about them here.
    Col. Edward Lloyd (c. 1620-1696) of “Wye “, who was one of the leaders
   of the Puritan emigration from Virginia to Maryland in 1649-1650, and who
   had been first appointed to the Council by Fendall in 1658, seems to have had
   the confidence of the Proprietary, and remained on the Council until he returned
   to England about the year 1668 to spend his remaining years there. He held