Introduction.           xxiii

    registered their marks in the records of the higher court. We find numerous
    instances of this kind in this volume. Horses, and occasionally cattle were
    branded.
      The Provincial Court exercised authority over the overseers of highways,
    who, however, were ordinarily appointed by the several county courts. In this
    record we find several instances in which overseers were indicted for not keeping
    the roads under their charge in order. In one instance Thomas Brooks
    [Brooke] complained that Charles Ashcomb, overseer of highways in St. Mary's
    County, had “through ill will and malice to the petitioner caused a way to be
    made through his cornfield to his great damage”, and the court ordered at the
    February, 1669/70, session that when Brooke's “field fence be repaired it is to
    be no more broken down”. (p. 532). The overseer seems to have been only
    rebuked, not punished. Licences for inns or ordinaries were normally issued
    by the Provincial Court.

             RECORDING OF NON-JUDICIAL PAPERS.


      We find scattered throughout the Provincial Court proceedings papers relat-
    ing to various matters not in litigation, which those who filed them with the
    clerk wished thus to have permanently recorded. Next to letters of attorney
    the most numerous of these are deeds and other papers relating to the titles of
    land. More than a fifth of the text of this volume relates to land titles.
    These land papers are discussed in a later section of this introduction (pp. xl-
    xlv). Numerous powers of attorney, general or limited, either from outsiders,
    or from one Marylander to another, are recorded. There are a few marriage
    certificates of Quakers and others entered.. Notices of “Intention of leaving the
    Province for England”, which were required to be published in order to give
    creditors an opportunity to get out writs of ne ezeat provinciam against
    debtors wishing thus to escape from them, are also found entered on these
    court records.

                          APPEALS.

      Appeals from the county courts were frequent, although the penalty of
    treble costs imposed upon the appellant if he lost, unquestionably kept the num-
    ber down. There were twenty-four appeals in this five-year period. For some
    reason not clear, possibly because the Calvert County court was weak, or because
    the county seat was so close to St. Mary's City, and on this account the incidental
    costs of such a suit were less, appeals from that court were especially frequent.
    Appeal from a decision of the Provincial Court might be carried up before
    the Upper House of the Assembly sitting as an appellate court, where the same
    men who sat below in the Provincial Court, heard the case on appeal. There
    were two such appeals to the Upper House in this period..
      Judge Carroll T. Bond, chief judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals, in the
    introduction to his Proceedings of the Maryland Court of Appeals 1695-1729
    (p. xxix) shows that there were four ways prior to 1678 by which proceedings
    arising in the county courts might be remanded to the Provincial Court. These
    were (I) by a writ of certiorari, before trial of the case below; (2) by a writ