xxxiv              Somerset County.

        Eastern Shore of Maryland, and was continued as a member of the first Somer-
        set County Court, August 22, 1666. Jones was a Quaker, and the county records
        show that he hesitated for two weeks before reconciling his conscience to taking
        the oath of office which he finally took at St. Mary's City, on September 1 ith.
        He remained on the Somerset County Court until his death in 1677. He lived
        at “Jones Hole “, his plantation on the Wicomico River.
         Henry Boston ( -1676), who was appointed one of the commissioners of
        the peace for the lower Eastern Shore on August 28, 1665, had probably come
        into Maryland from Virginia in 1662 or 1663. He was in Northampton
        County, Virginia, as early as 1655-1656. At the time Scarburgh invaded the
        lower Eastern Shore in October 1663, Boston was one of the Annemessex
        group who actively opposed the Virginia pretensions. When Somerset County
        was erected in August, 1666, he was reappointed as a justice for that county.
        Boston was an aggressive non-conformist and had been fined by the Northamp-
        ton County Court in 1660 for the “simple foolish things “which he had uttered
        and for his “contempt for authority and speaking reproachful words “. He
        does not seem to have been a Quaker, although he was in close affiliation with
        members of this sect in Annemessex, where he lived on his plantation, “Boston-
        town “, on the south side of the Great Annemessex River. Here he died, Sep-
        tember 24, 1676, and was buried.
         Torrence says that Boston was indicted by the Somerset County grand jury
        in March 1671/2, and was brought before the county court, June 11, 1672, the
        grand jury having presented him for “entertaining the wife of Thomas Davis
        and Thomas Davis for disposing of his said wife to the said Boston “. Boston
        was acquitted when he explained that he had simply hired Judith, the wife of
        Thomas Davis, a tailor, because Davis would not support her; but notwithstand-
        ing this there are said to be other records which show that Boston was the
        father of an illegitimate child by Judith Best before she became the wife of
        Thomas Davis. The situation had obviously given rise to more or less scandal
        in the neighborhood, but the county records of Somerset here printed do not
        extend to the date of this episode (Torrence's Old Somerset, pp. 32 1-322).
         The earlier portions of the court records reproduced here, covering the first
        twenty or more printed pages, extending from December 11, 1665, to August
        1666, and recording some five court sessions (pp. 610-632), while included in
        the first court “book of Somerset county” (Liber B No. 1), are described by
        the clerk as the record of “A Court houllden for tht part of the Province of
        Maryland lying & being between Chaptanke & Watkins point “. This opening
        entry is in the handwriting of George Johnson, one of the justices of the
        quorum, who acted as county clerk during the latter part of this pre-county
        period. A few weeks before Somerset County was formally established by
        proclamation on August 22, 1666, Edmund Beauchamp, sent by Gov. Charles
        Calvert to be clerk, was installed July 3, 1666 (p. 626), and his appointment
        was confirmed by the Governor in the proclamation erecting Somerset County
        (pp. 633-635; Arch. Md. iii,, 553-555). Beauchamp was for some reason
        formally recommissioned again on January 29, 1666/7 (p. 657), and continued
        to serve as clerk of the court until his death, September 26, 1671, a period