xlvi                 Introduction.

        Carpenter, both of Talbot County, the court at the request of both parties
        ordered a continuance, because “the present troubles in those parts wth the
        Indians will not admit of theire appearance this Court” (p. 241).
          When Major Thomas Ingram complained at the June, 1668, court that
        William Leeds and others had refused to obey his warrant as a militia officer,
        and had uttered “severall seditious and mutinous words agst his lopps peace”,
        they were placed in the sheriff's hands until they could find security and answer
        the charges against them, which do not, however, appear to have been pressed
       (p. 242).

          At the June, 1668, session John Vickry (Vicaris) represented to the court
        that in the year 1665, when he was Sheriff of Kent, by virtue of a warrant from
        Colonel Stockett and Captain William Burgess, he had pressed powder, armor,
        shot, shoes, stockings, provisions, boats, and hands for military purposes, and
        that the burgesses of Kent had neglected to present these claims to the Governor
        and Council for payment, and as a result several persons from whom these
        supplies were pressed had entered a caveat against his bond as sheriff. He
        submitted an account amounting to 1324 pounds of tobacco, itemized in great
        detail, which was allowed, and ordered to be paid out of the next public levy.
        (pp. 255, 256).
          The death of Anthony Taylor, who was killed by an Indian in Somerset
        County, which had been enquired into by a coroner's jury, was declared at
        the April, 1667, court to have been a “meer misfortune” (p. 167). This
        shows a tolerant attitude of mind towards the Indians at a time when there
        had been a recent uprising.
          Christopher Rousby petitioned the court in 1669 to the effect that the last
        Assembly had agreed to reimburse him 2000 pounds of tobacco out of the
        Calvert County levy for forty yards of trading cloth which he had given to
        Mr. Henry Coursey for the Indians of the Eastern Shore, but that by a
        mistake in laying the levy this had been charged against Charles County. The
        court directed Mr. Thomas Notley, the public receiver, to rectify the error
        (p.    References to roanoke, the money of the Indians, are rather rare
        in the Maryland records at this time. For some reason undisclosed, William
        Smyth agreed to pay a debt to John Nuthall in 4400 pounds of tobacco and
        “three hundred & thirtey armes length of roanoke due by Bill” (p. 202).
          There are few mentions of negroes or slaves. In a suit before the June, 1668,
        court, John Wright of Kent County charged Toby Wells with illegally exe-
        cuting upon three of his negroes, obviously slaves (pp. 316-317). It will also
        be recalled that when Margaret Preston married William Berry among other
        things which she reserved for her own use was her “little Negro Girle called
        sarah” born in her father's house, obviously a slave, and if the child died her
        husband was to give her another of the same value (p. 469).

                             MEDICAL.

          The Provincial Court proceedings contain fewer items of medical interest
        than do the county court records, but some references are worth mentioning.
        John Morecroft, the leading member of the Maryland bar at this period was a