Volume 60, Preface 50 View pdf image (33K) |
l Introduction. tween them: a pipe of Fayal wine for 2500 pounds and a hogshead for 1250 pounds. A jury found 400 pounds damages for Lynes with 88o pounds costs (pp. 500-501). There were quite a number of suits for debt filed by two Portobacco innkeepers which, in most cases, specified that they were for ac- commodations, food, or drinks, many against men of prominence. For such debts Nicholas Emanson (Emerson) (d. 1671) sued John Lewger, former Provincial Secretary, Justice James Lindsay, and Richard Boughton, clerk of the court (pp. 117, 121, 128, 214, 220). Edmund Lindsay for the same reason sued Richard Fowke, Thomas Boughton, John Nevill, Jacob Leah, John Thompkinson, Edward Maddock, Thomas Abbott, and Philip Lynes (pp. 236, 239-240, 243, 327, 547). WOMEN'S CLOTHING Two expensive items of women's clothing come to light in these records. Mrs. Verlinda Stone, the widow of Governor William Stone, is disclosed in a suit at the August, 1670, court, to have paid Mrs. Elizabeth Story, the adminis- tratrix of Walter Story, 350 pounds of tobacco for a gown—a high price in Maryland for those early days (p. 261). At the September, 1671, court, an- other suit reveals that Henry Bonner, the late clerk of the court, who married Walter Story's widow Elizabeth, bought in 1669 from Francis Bullock a “petticoat”, which must have been a handsome one, for 300 pounds of tobacco. The petticoat was then delivered to Bullock's maid, Winifrett, who, in exchange for it, was to make for Bonner six half shirts, six whole shirts, six cravats, six neckcloths, and six handkerchiefs. This Winifrett failed to do, nor did Bullock in his lifetime return the petticoat, so Bonner asked damages of 1000 pounds of tobacco from Bullock's administrator. But the court ruled that the claim was barred by a quietus est which had been issued upon the Bullock estate (p. 345). MUSIC Two references to music appear in this record, both cases referring to the cittern, a now obsolete musical instrument. At the March, 1670/1, court, the administrator of the estate of John Hitchison was sued by Miles Chafe, who declared that Hitchison had agreed in 1668 to pay 800 pounds of tobacco to Chafe to teach him to play the “Gitthren”; and that Chafe had carried out his part of the bargain, but Hitchison died soon afterwards, and the ad- ministrator refused to make payment. He asks for the 800 pounds of tobacco and 500 pounds additional for damages. A postponement was granted until the next court, but as the case did not come up again, it was doubtless “com- posed” out of court (p. 328). At the November, 1672, court, John Harvey deposed that five years before, in May, 1667, he had left with John Mould a “Citterne to be glewed & mended”; this he valued at 250 pounds of tobacco. He declared that Mould had refused either to return the cittern or to satisfy him for it. There was conflicting testimony by witnesses, but the court ordered Mould to pay Harvey 100 pounds of tobacco and cost of suit (pp. 437-438). |
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Volume 60, Preface 50 View pdf image (33K) |
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