xxiv                Talbot County.

        various high provincial offices, first in the fifties under the Commissioners of
        the Parliament, and later under the Proprietary (Md. Hist. Mag., vii, 221-222).
        Col. Henry Coursey (c. 1625-1697) of “My Lord's Gift “, Talbot County,
        was probably of the same Puritan group as was Lloyd. He is known to have
        been in Maryland as early as 1653. In addition to the various local offices which
        he held, he was Secretary of Maryland in 1660-1661; a member of the Gov-
        ernor's Council from 1660 to 1670, and again later from 1676 to 1684; and
        Chief Justice of the Provincial Court, 1684-1685. He was a brother of John
        Coursey ( -1661), the Clerk, Justice, and Sheriff of Kent County (p. xviii),
        and of William Coursey ( -1684), who was long on the Kent County
        Court, and was also Sheriff of that county (p. xviii).
          There were few changes, other than additions, to the Talbot court during
        these thirteen years. Symon Carpenter, Philip Stephenson, and Thomas Powell
        were added to the court, July 4, 1665 (p. 386; Arch. Md. iii, 491, 529). In
        February, 1668/9, Jonathan Sibery and William Hambleton were also added
        (p. 430). At the January, 1670/I, court, four new names are to be found:
        Philemon Lloyd, Richard Gorsuch, Edward Rowe, and John Wells (p. 353,
        482). At only one session, that for March, 167 1/2, does the name of William
        Hemsley, long the county clerk, appear as justice (p. 519); although at a much
        later date, 1681, he was again on the court and then of the quorum (Arch.
        Md. xv, 346).
          Simon Carpenter ( -1670) was in Talbot County as early as 1663/4, when
        on March 22, he was commissioned a justice (Arch. Md. iii, 491), and on July
        4, 1665, was recommissioned (Arch. Md. iii, 529). In the following year he
        patented land on the south side of the Chester River in what is now Queen
        Anne's County, where he seems to have made his home. He was still on the
        Talbot court in 1670, the year of his death. On Jupe 4, 1661, he had been
        appointed a justice (of the quorum) of Baltimore County, doubtless represent-
        ing the Eastern Shore section of that county (Arch. Md. iii, 424). Nothing
        has been learned of his antecedents or of his political affiliations, except that
        he was closely associated with Col. Henry Coursey.
          Philip Stephenson (Stevenson) ( -1679), who went on the court in 1665,
        was doubtless one of the group of Quakers who were driven out of Lancaster
        County, Virginia, in 1 66o, and settled on the Patapsco and the Choptank, as
        we find him closely associated in 1663 with the Quaker Powells in Patapsco
        land transactions. The Talbot County court records show him to have been
        the owner of a plantation on Queen's Creek [New Kent County ?], Virginia,
        in 1664 (p. 401). He patented land in Talbot County in 1666. His will was
        presented for probate May 30, 1679, but does not appear to be on record.
          Thomas Powell ( -1670), who first sat on the court in 1665, is known to
        have been one of the group of Quakers from Lancaster County, Virginia, who
        were forced out by Gov. Berkeley in 1 66o, and who settled on the Choptank
        River. He last appeared on the court in November 1669, a few months before
        his death early in the following year. He and Howell Powell, who was doubt-
        less a brother, were large landholders, first in Baltimore County and later in
        Talbot, where they were men of prominence.