INTRODUCTION

        This record of the proceedings of the Charles County Court for the 1666-
      1674 period is a direct continuation of the previously published proceedings of
      the court for the first nine years following the county's establishment in 1658.
      The latter, covering the 1658-1666 period, have been printed in Volume LIII
      of the Archives. In the introduction to that volume will be found a history
      of the early Maryland county court system, its origin, development, jurisdiction
      and procedure, and also of the relation of the county courts to the superior
      courts of the Province, viz.: the Upper House sitting as the court of appeals,
      the Provincial or General Court, and the Court of Chancery, as well as of the
      relation of county courts to the inferior manorial courts (Arch. Md. LIII,
      xi-lx). In that volume will also be found a sketch of the beginnings of the
      Charles County court and some mention of those who served as its early
      justices or commissioners (ibid., lxvi-lxvii). There also will be found a brief
      history of the manorial courts of the Province (ibid., !xi-lxv).
        The Charles County material printed in Volume LIII was taken verbatim
      and literatim from libers A and B of the original court records, occupying in
      all 788 manuscript folio pages of these two original record books. The material
      in the present volume, some 748 manuscript pages of the original record books
      at La Plata, the county seat, is to be found in libers C, D, E, and part of F.
      Volume LIII ends with the minutes of the court session which opened on
      March 13, 1665/6. The present volume opens with a heading bearing this
      same date, which is followed immediately by entries of a number of Charles
      County deeds and warrants enrolled before the next meeting of the court,
      held in June, 1666.

                           THE COURT

        The court met on June 12, 1666, with six justices present, James Lindsay,
      Zachary Wade (Waed), Francis Pope, Joseph Harrison, William Marshall,
      and Thomas Mathews. The only member of the court, as it was then consti-
      tuted, not present, was Walter Beane (p. 11). An Ordinance of Governor
      Charles Calvert and the Council is the first entry in the court minutes proper.
      This is dated at St. John's, St. Mary's County, May 20, 1666. The Ordinance
      decrees that no changes which may have been made by the Governor by the
      renewal of the commissions of any of the justices should affect the validity of
      any suits or processes then pending before the courts, or affect the continuance
      of suits (pp. 11-12). The Ordinance is followed by the Governor's formal
      proclamation of it to the several county courts and sheriffs (pp. 12-13).
        The court usually met six or seven times a year. Sessions were ordinarily,
      but not invariably, held in January, March, June, August, September, and
      November, but there was occasionally an October meeting. Fifty-five are
      recorded as having been held in this nine year period. It was at the June court