Introduction. xvii

said she had two witnesses. The Court ordered Mary into the custody of
Sheriff William Boareman while it looked into the case. In a day or so a bill of
sale from Lewis to Thomas Courtney, also of St. Mary's County, for Mary
Baines was produced in Court, and the Court ordered her into the custody
of Courtney. Ten years or so earlier, Lewis had been charged with mutiny
and sedition against the Proprietary, and, being found guilty, had been ordered
to receive thirty-nine lashes. Since gentlemen were never given lashes (Ar-
chives I, 184), Lewis can have been no more than a planter.

With treatment so cruel vented upon servants, it is not strange that there
were runaways, even if seldom. Richard Johns of Calvert County, had a ser-
vant, John Thompson, a tailor by trade, with two years still to serve. The
tailor-servant departed and ran away without leave. James Harrison, also a
tailor, offered to go down into Virginia, whither Thompson was said to have
fled, and bring him back, for one thousand pounds of tobacco. Johns accepted
the offer, and authorized Harrison to dispose of Thompson if he saw fit. Har-
rison did apprehend the fleeing servant and sold him for 6000 pounds of
tobacco to a Virginia merchant. But he did not pay the 6000 pounds to Johns,
the master, so Johns sued him. Harrison said ne had not promised what the
master said, and he put himself upon the country, prayed a jury trial. The jury
found for Jones and they awarded the plaintiff £22/10 or 4500 pounds of
tobacco. This direct comparison of the value of sterling and tobacco is often
hard to find. Other servants ran away and either came back or were brought
back. By act of Assembly any such servant had to serve ten days for each day's
absence (Archives II, 524-528). Thomas Doxey of St. Mary's County told the
Court that his servant woman, Katherine Canneday, ran away and unlawfully
absented herself one hundred and seven days, "whereupon itt is ordered that she
the said Katherine serve the said Thoma[s] ..... tenn dayes for every one dayes
absence according to Act of Assembly ..... which amounts unto One thousand
& seventy dayes" (post, 154-155). Nothing was said of her corn and clothes,
so presumably she was to have them when the 1070 days were over.

CHIRURGEONS

At this time only four or five men appear as chirurgeons or doctors, and
sometimes what they were doing was related to their skill in healing diseases.
The place of doctors in the community was not high: as far back as 1640 they
were mentioned with artificers or laborers, and county courts were allowed to
regulate their wages and their rates (Archives I, 97). Nor is anything much
known about their training. On February 14, 1679/80, Francis Burton of
Calvert County petitioned the Provincial Court for an increase in his allow-
ance. He had been wounded in the thigh in the fighting at the Susquehanna
Fort under Major Thomas Truman, and he was "now in a perishing condicon
haveing att p^rsent ffive tents in his Thigh ......." (post, 115). A tent was a
surgical dressing to absorb the drainage from the wound. Thereupon the
Court ordered Chirurgeon Edward Mullins or Mollins, to take care of Burton,
dress his wounds and try to cure him, and ordered that Burton have an increase
of 400 pounds of tobacco in his allowance, in addition to the charges for