xx                 Introduction.




          finde no proofe of the said Indictmt whereupon the said Mary was quitted by
          pclamation” (post, pp. 13, 14, 18, 20). Ann Pattison who was charged with
          killing her bastard on March 1672, was indicted and tried but the “Jurors upon
          their oathes doe say that she is not Guilty of the felony & murder whereof she
          stands indicted nor that she did fly for it, and so they say all whereupon the
          said Ann Pattison was acquittcd by pclamation & by the Court discharged.”
          (post, pp. 30, 3 1-33).

            On December 19, 1671, Francis Tyler, late of Anne Arundel County, was
          indicted by the grand jury for killing John Beck by striking him on the head
          with a stick on October 25, 1670. Tyler plead not guilty and put himself upon
          the Country. At the trial, three witnesses were heard, and Tyler himself
          testified. The jury decided that he was “not guilty and so say they all The
          Clerke demanded of the Jury if he did fly for it. they reply not to their
          knowledge” (post, p. 20). In two other criminal cases, this same question is
          asked, whether the accused person had fled or tried to flee, and the jury replied,
          both times, that he had not (ibid., pp. 26, 33). When the clerk demanded how
          Beck came to his death, “they say that ffrancis Tyler Killed the said John Beck
          with a Tobacco stick in his own Defence.” When no one appeared, to say
          that Tyler was guilty of any treason, felony or murder, he was acquitted by
          proclamation (ibid., pp. 17, 18, 19, 20).
            On February 13, 1672, Philip Lynes of Charles County was presented by
          the grand jury for burglary, Richard Robinson was presented for theft, and
          several other planters and their wives were presented because they “did felo
          niously incite councell and abet the said Richard Robinson” to his crime. All
          of these presentments grew out of the same episode. Lynes “feloniously bur
          glarly and in the night” broke and entered the store house of John Allen at
          Port Tobacco Creek, and Robinson, egged on by the others, stole merchandise
          to the value of several pounds. Allen must have kept a general store: among
          the goods stolen were yards of fabrics of several kinds, shoes and ribbons,
          “two payer of ifrench ifalls to the value of six shillings”, sugar and flour and
          soap and wine. French falls were bands of lace or some thin material gathered
          to form a cascade and worn hanging from the neck. Almost any seventeenth
          or eighteenth century portrait of a gentleman shows them; today they would
          be called jabots. Among the abettors of Robinson were “Ellen the wife of .
          George Taylour spinster . . . & Mary the wife of . . . Robert Clerke spin
          ster”. The term spinster was applied to unmarried gentlewomen, and was some
          times retained by them after they were married, but these two women were
          under indictment for aiding and abetting burglary and theft. Lynes, upon his
          arraignment, plead not guilty, and the jury that tried him decided that he was
          “(not Guilty) nor that he did ffly for it.” He was thereupon held to answer to
          the other indictment of perticipating in the theft charged against Ralph
          Robinson. Robinson and all the others plead not guilty. The witnesses against
          them were John Allen, the injured storekeeper and a youth named Peter
          Jacobsin. “Peter being a youth & not capable of an oath was not sworne”, but
          Allen was sworn and gave his testimony, and the prisoners spoke on their own
          behalf. The jury said Robinson was “not guilty—whereupon the principall
          Robinson being acquitted the Jury were not asked as to the accessaryes”.