introduction.              lix

    goods that had been brought in on them might be offered for sale (pp. 315,
    Arch. Md. V, 3 1-32, 47-48).
      These forfeiture proceedings were followed by suits for wages by seamen
    against the ship-owners, and these in turn by suits of the latter against John
    pltts, consignee, “who doth absent himself in the woods to void the arrest”,
    on the ground that pltts had promised the ship-owners that he would attend
    to all matters pertaining to the ship entries and would see the masters harmless.
    pltts, however, later appeared in court. In these suits John Morecroft repre-
    sented pltts and Jenifer the ship-owners, and, it may be added, pltts seems to
    have won out (pp. 174-5, 184-6, 201, 233, 252). There is also to be found
    recorded a deposition by Solomon Blackleech, master of the ship Charles of
    Boston, which shows that his wages were three pounds sterling a month
    (pp. 565-6).
      In a deposition in regard to certain goods shipped on the ship William of
    Dover, England, the deponent, John Freeman, declared that on January 28,
    1670, he had heard Edmund Maynard, the commander, say that he had been
    “chased to Mevis [Nevis?] by two men of warre, and it being a starving time
    there the Governor seized his provision for the use of the Island” (p. 549).
      The records of this period show that there was an important trade with New
    England, and this largely in New England ships. Not only are there frequent
    mentions of ships and mariners from there, but several powers of attorney from
    New Englanders are recorded. Of English ports Bristol seems to have been
    that with which Maryland had the most trade, and Bristol merchants and resi-
    dents of Bristol are constantly mentioned. Thomas Freeman, a Bristol mer-
    chant, traded extensively in Maryland. Following his death in 1668, seven
    Maryland creditors filed suits in the Provincial Court against his administra-
    tor here, Thomas Cooper, for debts aggregating 59,765 pounds of tobacco
    (pp. 374-378). The index of this volume will reveal the extent of the trade
    affiliations of Maryland with Bristol.
      As illustrating the way in which Maryland merchants traded in their own
    Province may be cited the case of Fobbe Roberts, a merchant of St. Mary's.
    On April 15, 1668, Thomas Courtney, apparently as his agent, recorded in
    court forty-one notes obligatory payable by various Maryland planters to
    Roberts, doubtless for imported merchandise recently sold to them. The pur-
    chasers in these notes obligated themselves to pay at a designated time and
    place a sum represented by a given number of pounds of tobacco, this tobacco
    to be delivered to Roberts either at various ports in St. Mary's and Charles
    counties, or at landing places on a debtor's own plantation (pp. 273-282,
    289-290).

                  MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS.

      We find chance mention in this record of various persons, places and things
    which have local or antiquarian interest.
      An early, perhaps the earliest use in the Maryland records of the word farm
    as synonymous with plantation, is to be found in an ejection suit instituted by
    John Gittings, clerk of the St. Mary's County Court, against Henry Bannister