Introduction,                            xlvii

Johnson. This included building a 60 foot tobacco house at a cost of 1200
pounds of tobacco, building a 10 foot hen house for 200 pounds, and "getting
the frame of a 40 foot tobacco house", making a total of 1500 pounds of
tobacco. He asked in addition damages of 2400 pounds. The court awarded
a total of 1500 pounds to Godfrey (pp. 353-354). In the suit of Hugh Thomas
against Nicholas Grosse, a demand was made for the payment of 500 pounds
of tobacco for the building of a "house fifteen foot Long & ten foot wide &
.... one bed steed & formes." The court gave judgment against Grosse to-
gether with costs of 240 pounds (pp. 354-355). There were also suits for
debts due in connection with the building of a cider mill (p. 232), and a tobacco
house (p. 44).

Reference has already been made to the new court house and prison built
in 1674-1675 by John Alien for Charles County, at a cost, with one acre of
land, of 20,000 pounds of tobacco. The specifications and details of construc-
tion are given with meticulous accuracy. In general it may be said that the
court house was to be 25 feet in length by 22 feet in breadth with an upper
floor and two brick chimneys. The floors were to be well planked, the lower
rooms to be wainscoted, the upper rooms well daubed and sealed with mortar,
white limed and sized; there were to be convenient doors, locks, keys, bolts,
latches, hinges, staircases, stairs, windows, window frames, casements, and
glazing. The prison, 25 X 15 feet, was to be of sufficient strength for a prison,
with a loft or garret over it. The interested reader is referred for building
details to the deed (pp. 615-618).

HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES

Laws had been passed at the 1666, 1669, and 1671, sessions of the General
Assembly providing for the laying out, making, and maintenance of highways,
under which taxables of the neighborhoods benefited were obliged to furnish
labor for this purpose, or were to be fined if they refused to do so when called
upon {Arch. Md. II; 134-135, 219-220, 321-322); and at the 1674 Assembly
an act was passed for making passable, as an added protection against Indians
"who lived in great numbers" in Charles County, a road from Charles County
to St. Mary's through Zachia Swamp, as the old highway had been flooded
and made useless by the erection of a mill dam at the head of the Wicomico
River. The road was to be erected within two miles of the mill, and to be
completed by March 20, 1675 (ibid. 408-409). In pursuance of the require-
ments of the act of 1666, the commissioners of Charles County, on November
13, i666, ordered the constables of the county to appoint overseers of highways
who were to mark out convenient highways passable for horse and foot to the
heads of rivers, creeks, and swamps, and to hire or force labor for this purpose.
The overseers of the highways were also authorized to levy tobacco for labor
equally among the taxpayers (ibid. 39-40).

In the 1669 county levy there is an item of 3000 pounds of tobacco to be paid
Captain Boarman for building a bridge (p. 229). The location of the bridge
is not given, but one suspects that it was over Zachia Swamp. At the January,
1673-/4, court, four persons were "presented" by constables to the grand jury