xxxiv              Introduction.




          stockings, and all the old clothes she had. The earliest of these laws gave the
          servant as well fifty acres of land, five of it plantable (ibid., p. 97), but this
          was repealed in 1663, because the master got only fifty acres for bringing the
          servant in, and to give him fifty acres would take away all the master's perma
          nent gain. (ibid., p. 496). Of course the master could give the servant more
          than the set minimum, and if the servant had an especially desirable trade, the
          master probably did so agree.
           Isabella Goodale, or Elizabeth Gibbs, or Elizabeth Goodale, laid before the
          Court a complaint about the time to be served by her young son. There can
          be no manner of doubt that only one woman is being spoken of, yet three
          different names are used for her and no explanation is offered. She and the
          child had been brought to Virginia by John Quigley in 1668/9, and there she
          and the child. had been sold to Captain James Neale. They were spoken of in
          the bill of sale as “One woman servant by name Elizabeth Gibbs and her sonn
          Gilbert Goodale . . . for the full terme and time of the Custome of Virginia
          to Say from the time of their Arrivall”. Six months later the Westmoreland
          County court sat to make inspection of their ages, as was required for servants
          not coming in under indenture. The child was judged to be five years old, and
          was ordered to serve nineteen years, and his mother Elizabeth Gibbs, who
          was under indenture, was to serve five years. John Quigley had, in Febru
          ary 1668/9, sold the child for the full term and time allowed by Virginia law:
          now, on January 13, 1674/5, in Maryland, he made a signed statement that
          six years or so ago he had disposed of Elizabeth Goodale for five years from
          her arrival, and that she had “had with her a man child about five yeares of
          age which she said was her Sonn which I did no wayes putt of for any terme
          of time but to be free and cleere as Soon as his Mother”. Had Quigley sold
          the time of the son, as Neale and the Virginia court said, or had he not? The
          Provincial Court read all the papers and heard all the witnesses, and on Febru
          ary 13, 1674/5, ordered that the boy be free and discharged from Neale's
          service. The Maryland court respected the decision of the Virginia court
          enough to order Quigley to pay Neale 2000 pounds of tobacco for the time
          the other court had ordered the child to serve (post, pp. 475-476).
           In several cases, the transportation of servants plays a big part. George Wells
          received by the Baltamore, Capt. John Dunch, goods to the value of £500 or
          more, and also seven servants. The servants did not appear on the bill of lading,
          but Capt. Dunch signed a receipt for taking them on board, and he thought
          that the person to whom he delivered them gave him a receipt in his turn (post,
          pp. 145-150. In the case of Henry Spry v. Hugh ifrench, Spry had delivered
          a man servant for 1600 pounds of tobacco, and a hogshead of molasses
          (Malossus must be molasses) to a total of 2400 pounds of tobacco, which
          Spry said French had not paid. When, on November 12, 1673, the case came
          up, plaintiff Spry admitted that he had had and lost a bill which defendant
          French had given him, so he had been forced to sue on an assumpsit, the
          only plea on which he could sue in the absence of a written and sealed con
          tract. The Court examined the premises, and awarded Spry what he claimed,
          but it ordered him to pay the jurors, summoned and sworn but not used, ten
          pounds of tobacco apiece, and dismissed both parties (ibid., pp. 153-154).