1                    Introduction.

        represented to the Provincial Court at the February, 1667/8, session that follow-
        ing the death of her husband, Richard Pinner, his widow Ann had married
        George Attkins, and that the latter “doth dayly imbezill & waste the estate”, the
        court ordered that administration be granted to Ann, and that her now husband
        Attkins have no interest in, or meddle with, any part of the estate or, it may be
        added, be liable for any of its debts (pp. 241-242).
          John Harrington, who married the widow of Francis Mogg, petitioned
        the court at the June, 1668, session that he be allowed consideration for keeping
        and maintaining the Mogg children and that they continue with him during
        the pleasure of the court. After the justices had “viewed” the children it was
        ordered that they remain with him during the court's pleasure, and it was
        further ordered that the eldest daughter “be exempted from the How and the
        Mortar” (p. 302), the court evidently feeling that to hoe tobacco and grind
        corn like a servant was not suitable work for this young lady. Why Bryan
        Daley of St. Mary's, after his marriage with the widow of Nicholas Keyton
        should have wished to give up the “charge and trouble of the said Orphants”
        and have asked the Governor as Chief Judge of probate of wills to appoint a
        guardian, is not clear. The court did, however, discharge him from the care of
        the children and the management of this estate, for which he filed an inventory,
        and the justices appointed William Calvert, the Attorney-General and a mem-
        ber of the court, to be their guardian (p. 394). When a short time later, at the
        February, 1669, court, Calvert complained that Daley had refused to deliver up
        the orphans' estate and had even disposed of part of it without lawful authority,
        it was ordered that the whole matter be referred to the St. Mary's County Court
        for Orphans (pp. 424-425). The court did not always appoint those who
        sought to be made guardians. There is a petition of a certain Jesper Allen
        that he be appointed guardian of Robert Wright, son and heir of Ishmaell
        Wright late of Patuxent, but the court decided otherwise and appointed Mr.
        George Beckwith as guardian (p. 576).

                       INDENTURED SERVANTS.

          Questions involving indentured servants generally came before the county
        courts and not before the Provincial Court, but a few instances are to be
        found in this record where the latter court was asked to adjudge the remain-
        ing time of service and the penalties to be imposed on runaway servants involv-
        ing additional time of servitude.
          The cold-blooded murder of a servant boy, Samuel Youngman, by his
        master Francis Carpenter and how the latter saved his neck by pleading benefit
        of clergy, has already been told (pp. xxvi-xxvii). Thomas Bennett, repre-
        sented by Daniel Jenifer as his attorney, sued Robert Jones at the October,
        1666, court. Bennett, who had been sent to Delaware Bay by Jones to recover
        a runaway servant, Joseph Taylor, had been promised a cow and a calf by her
        side if he brought the runaway back with him; but if he did not, he was to
        bring from the governor there a letter showing that he had actually been to
        Delaware Bay. If the servant was not to be found there, he was then to pro-
        ceed to New York and if the runaway could not be found there he was to bring