Introduction.             xxi

    court is disclosed by a suit for defamation which he instituted against Thomas
    Paine who was represented by Benjamin Rozer. Paine made no denial of
    having called Jenifer an “unworthy Knave”, but prayed the judgment of the
    court whether these words were actionable. Paine's position was more vulner-
    able than that of Champ, as the slanderous words had evidently been uttered
    after Jenifer had become a sworn attorney of the court. Advised to ask
    Jenifer's forgiveness, he did so in open court, and his apology was taken by
    Jenifer “for satisfaction”, but the court ordered that he find two sufficient
    sureties for his appearance before the next court, and the meanwhile to be of
    good behaviour, or else be committed to the custody of the Sheriff (p. 126).
    Here the matter seems to have been left.

               CIVIL FUNCTIONS OF THE COURT.

      We find the Provincial Court frequently exercising civil duties which ordi-
    narily came within the province of the county courts. One of these was to
    provide care for the ill, the indigent, and the aged, usually by boarding these
    unfortunates out in families. Benjamin Hammond, “being quite destitute of
    howseing or sustenance”, was ordered to have accommodations at Robert
    Perry's house, with meat, drink, lodging, washing and clothing, and a year later
    Perry was allowed 900 pounds of tobacco for his care (pp. 151, 321-322).
    Martha Crab, “lame and cannot maintain herself”, was ordered at the April,
    1667, court to live at the house of Walter Pake, an inn-keeper of St. Mary's
    County, and a year later the Court again directed that she continue at Pake's
    house for another year. Incidentally it may be added that some months later
    this same Walter Pake was hanged for the murder at his own house, while
    drunk, of William Price (pp. 352, 354-356). Henry Grist, a bed-ridden ser-
    vant of John Warren of St. Mary's County, had been for nine months and two
    weeks cared for at great cost and trouble to his master. The court ordered that
    if Grist did not soon recover, the charges for his care were to be allowed by
    St. Mary's County (p. 322).
      John Hester, “being in a very meane Condicon haveing noe habitaccon or
    place of abode . . . . and being upwards of sixty years of age”, was relieved
    of paying the levies (p. 395). William Land, left friendless and unable to
    provide for himself, was ordered to live with Daniel Devine until he became
    eighteen years of age (p. 538).
      The county courts usually appointed constables to serve in the various hun-
    dreds of their respective counties. As showing how the Provincial Court, when
    it saw fit, assumed the powers ordinarliy entrusted to the local courts, especially
    of the St. Mary's and Calvert County courts, we here find it regularly appoint-
    ing constables for the former county (p. 156, 181-2, 305-6, 536, 537, 538).
    Coroners at this period were ordinarily appointed by the Governor. When it was
    reported at the December, 1668, session that there was no coroner for Lower
    Patuxent in Calvert County since the death of Richard Collett, the Governor
    announced the appointment of Mr. George Beckwith to serve there during
    his pleasure (p. 367). When William Bretton, one of the coroners of St.
    Mary's County, indicted by the Grand Jury for not viewing a corpse when