Introduction.              xxvii



      this, he released all but the guilty man, and even him he released when a letter
      came down from New York (ibid., p. 52). As to the charge that he had treated
      old Robert Catlin uncivilly, that he denied entirely. To that part of the informa
      tion charging that he had seized two mares belonging to Henry Smith, he —or
      Morecroft for him— replied that it was so full of uncertainties that he ought
      not to be asked to answer for it. He asked the Court to dismiss him with costs
      and charges, but the Attorney General alleged that he was guilty, and both put
      themselves upon the judgment of the Court. “And after a ifull hearing of the
      businesse this day . . . And the said Thomas Jones Comissn . . . for the sole
      Indian Trade of this Province, being openly Read His LordPPs Justices are all
      Clearly 5attisficd that the said Thomas Jones hath Exceeded the Limmitts of
      his Comissn . . . And therefors the Court Doe order the said Comissn to be
      Imediately Cancelled & Vaccated, which was in open Court done by tearing
      off the seale”. The Court further ordered Jones to satisfy Cornellison, Otho
      Wollegast and Groendick for the goods he had taken and to pay their costs
      (ibid.,
        The matter of the seizure of Richard Ackworth's goods and his sloop was
      handled by a Court order on Ackworth's petition. The goods and the sloop
      were to be restored to their owner, but in future he should not go out of the
      Province with the sloop until he had cleared with the collector for his county
      (ibid., p. 56).
        The case involving the six mares said to have been imported into the
      Province and seized on that ground by Jones, like the other two cases, was
      heard and decided on December 10, 1672. Peter Hance appeared by Kenelm
      Cheseldyn, his attorney, by special grace of the Court, and said that he “he is in
      noe wise Guilty of the premisses against the forme of the statute aboue Imposed
      upon him” as Jones had charged, and both men put themselves upon the
      country (ibid., p. 57). Accordingly, a jury was summoned., and both parties
      appeared, Hance by his attorney, Jones in his proper person. The jury decided
      that Hance had in fact brought the mares to the Whore Kill, from whence they
      did not say. “And the Court being ifully sattisfied that the Whorekeil was
      not at that tyme in the Actuall posession of the Right Honble the Lord Pro
      prietary, Therefore they doe Adjudge that the said Mares are not forfeited,
      and Doe Order them to be Released, And the said Thomas in mercy for his
      falce Complaint &c” (ibid.).
        But Jones, if quick-tempered and not judicious, was energetic, and the
      Provincial government needed him. Very shortly after he had. been turned
      down by the Court on all three points, on December 14, 1672, he was appointed
      an Indian trader for the Eastern Shore (Archives, V, p. 114). His commis
      sion was only a small part of what it had been. He had been the Indian trader
      for the whole Province, with the right to stop all others from trading. Now
      he was one of the traders for the Eastern Shore,. and he could not halt intruders.
      He could not and someone else could. Two days after Jones's new license,
      another commission was given to Peter Groenendyck, to whom Jones had been
      ordered to make satisfaction for goods he had taken from him in the August
      raids. Groenend.yck was authorized to trade with Indians and others in the