Introduction.             liii

     one year, he petitioned the court for his freedom, which was granted upon
     his giving security for the payment of the balance of the sheriff's fees (p. 580).
      At the February, 1667/8, court William Oglethorpe complained that he had
     hired himself out to Thomas Wynn for eight months for 800 pounds of to-
     bacco, and that the latter had given him no rest until he had signed “a Con-
     dicon for 4 years”, under which the petitioner was to have good Sufficient
     dyett lodging Washing Cow calf e and Clothing”, which agreement, or condi-
     tion of indenture, although Oglethorpe had served two years, Wynn had not
     complied with. The court ordered that Wynn pay Oglethorpe 950 pounds of
     tobacco and deliver up the condition or agreement (p. 254).
      In a recorded lease, dated December 1, 1666, of a tract called The Fox on
     Bretton's Bay, St. Mary's County, from George Reynolds to Thomas Covant,
     part of the consideration was the delivery to Reynolds by Covant of “two able
     men Servts betweene the age of Eighteene and eight & twenty yeares”, or, if
     this were not possible, 5000 pounds of tobacco and five barrels of corn. This
     gives us 2500 pounds of tobacco as the fair valuation of an able-bodied man
     servant at that time (pp. 208-210).
      At a Baltimore County Court held March 13, 1665/6, Edward Jessop com-
     plained to the court, that although by the decease of his mistress he was free
     by the terms of his indenture, his master Colonel Nathaniel Utie still held him
     in servitude. The county court gave him his freedom and Colonel Utie appealed
     to the Provincial Court. The case came up at three successive sessions, April,
     June, and October, 1666, hut Utie not appearing at any of these hearings,
     Jessop was finally declared free (pp. 8o, 110, 117, 129). From another source
     it is learned that Mary, the wife of Nathaniel Utie, had been murdered by a
     negro slave on Sep. 30, 1665 (Arch. Md. XLIX; 489-490).
      Why two servants, Katherine and Jeane, belonging respectively to Thomas
     Dent and Patrick Forrest, both of St. George's hundred, St. Mary's County,
     charged with bastardy, should have been indicted in the Provincial Court
     rather than in the county court, which was the usual procedure, is not explained,
     although the higher court, of course could assume jurisdiction whenever it
     wished. The record does not disclose their fate. Perhaps they were turned
     over to the county court and sentenced there to the usual lashing imposed in
     such cases (p. 310).
      John Moli, and three others, probably ship owners, sued Thomas Cooper,
     the administrator of the merchant Thomas Freeman, on an account which
     included the passage-money for sixty-nine servants to be paid for upon their
     arrival at 850 pounds of tobacco, or about £3-10-0, each—a total of 58,650
     pounds of tobacco or £344. It is of interest to note that tobacco in this case
     was valued at one penny a pound (p. 416). This was a large transaction in-
     volving, as it did, some £344 sterling.
      The Provincial Court while having concurrent jurisdiction with the county
     courts in many matters relating to indentured servants, on occasion showed
     irritation when many such cases were brought before it. In these records we
     find the higher court on several occasions determining the age of servants,
     the duration of their unexpired term of servitude, and the time added as pen-