xxvi                Introduction.

        in all fifteen such sex cases recorded. The records show that the woman in-
        volved might be ordered a whipping or be fined, but whippings seem to be
        less frequent than in the previous decade, servants alone being the victims.
        The father of a bastard child, if a servant, was usually accorded the same treat-
        ment as the woman, but if a freeman, was obliged to give bond that the child
        would not become a public charge. The criminal record for the period covered
        by this volume was, however, so badly kept by the changing and irresponsible
        clerks or deputy clerks, that we are left in the dark as to whether a whipping
        or any other punishment was meted out to eight of the women presented for
        bastardy. Bastardy and unlawful cohabitation cases were ordinarily brought
        before the grand jury by one of the constables and, if the evidence justified,
        were presented for trial. Thus, at the 1671 court, Francis Lamb was ordered
        to give security for 10,000 pounds of tobacco to keep the county harmless from
        the care of “a bastard child by him begotten on the body of Anne Broadhead.”
        The latter, a servant, was presented at the same court for bastardy, but the
        record does not disclose her punishment. The amount of the bond alone proves
        that Lamb was not a servant (pp. 355-356). Obadiah Dunn and Elizabeth
        Francis were presented for having a ‘bastard child abortive they both burying
        of it & concealing of it”, but the punishment was voided when a planter,
        Robert Rowland, agreed to pay to the Lord Proprietary the 200 pounds of
        tobacco fine imposed on each of the principals (p. 519). At the same court
        Margaret Ward, living at Captain Hugh Oneal's was fined 500 pounds for
        bastardy, Ralph Coates going security to pay the fine due to the Lord Pro-
        prietary (p. 519) ; while Ann Ward, whose case was called the same day, could
        not be found by the sheriff (p. 519). Margaret Evans was fined 500 pounds
        of tobacco at the January, 1674, court, for bastardy, and Peter Carr “where
        she liveth” paid the fine to the Lord Proprietary (p. 518).
         Two cases where a man and a woman were unlawfully living together, and
        a near breach of promise suit, came before the court. Joane Langford had
        George Harris summoned before the court and accused "the said George for
        begetting a Bastard Child on her Body, and for Nonperformance of his
        promise to Marry her, or set her free.” George was ordered to give bond for
        1500 pounds of tobacco to save the county harmless for the maintenance of
        the bastard child, and to pay “Two hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco to
        the Wife of John Cofer for tending on the said Joane in her Laying in.” He
        also paid a fine of 500 pounds to “acquit and set free the said Joane of the
        penalty of Whipping” (pp. 141-142). At the court held in November, 1672,
        there were two similar presentments by the grand jury. Elinor Warren was
        charged with “beading [bedding] and entertaining Thomas Howell for the
        space of Six weeks in her house and not lawfully married to him” (p. 439).
        There is evidence that Elinor Warren was a woman of some property (pp. 350,
        364). Susanna Dunn, the wife of Thomas Dunn of “the upper county of Rap-
        pahannock in Virginia” and Philip Cary of Mattawoman, Charles County,
        were presented, she for absenting herself from her husband, and he for keeping
        her over two years and living together as man and wife; and she also for
        having had a bastard child by him about a year previous (p. 439). The outcome
        of neither of these cases is revealed by the record.