Introduction.             xix

     under ten) served until they were twenty-two. If neither the servant nor the
     master had proof of age, they must, within six months of entry, appear before
     the county court or even before the Provincial Court, and the court decided
     their age. In February 168 1/2, Gilbert Turberville brought in his man, Thomas
     Dansey. Dansey had no indenture, and the court said he was nineteen years old
     (post, p. 171). Servants were sometimes bought from dealers: John Rousby
     bought a man from Gilbert Livesay (post, p. 142), though it is not certain
     whether Livesay was in Maryland or across the water.
       Acts of Assembly were, on their face, very hard on servants, and it seems
     that they were enforced strictly. If a servant ran away, as many did, he or she
     had to serve his master ten days for every day he was gone. There are many
     cases here where this was done, and with the consent of the court (post, pp. 167-
     168, 453, 455). In many ways the servants were property, just like the
     master's aifros and the beasts of his carts. When the sheriff of Kent County
     was ordered to seize the property of Ellis Humphrey to the extent of 10,000
     pounds of tobacco, for the benefit of the Lord Proprietary, the appraisers listed
     one servant boy with four years to serve, eleven poor, weak cows, a hand mill
     and a grindstone (post, p. 33). The servant boy was valued at 2800 pounds of
     tobacco, which was about the average for an adult able-bodied man or woman.
       And yet the Court was unwilling to leave the servants to the doubtful mercy
     of the master. William Douglas, servant to William Harper of St. Mary's
     County, petitioned the Court to oblige his master to care for a sore leg which
     he had long had, so long that he was in danger of perishing from it. He had
     often asked his master to seek a remedy for him, but Harper had always refused
     to help. The Court heard and listened, and “ordered . . . this second day of
     March 1681 [2] that the said William Harper at his owne Prop cost and charge
     doe with all convenient speed procure an able Chirurgion to endeavor to cure
     the said William Douglas of his said sore Legg :“ (post, p. 169).
       There were the usual petitions of persons held to servitude. Some of them
     wanted only their freedom; more often they wanted the clothing and supplies
     which a servant got when he finished serving his time and gained his freedom.
     By an act of Assembly of 1676 (Archives II, pp. 523-528), which was ap
     plicable at this time, servants, both men and women, got a good kersey or
     broadcloth suit, a new linen shift, a new pair of shoes and stockings, two hoes,
     an axe and three barrels of Indian corn. Masters sometimes refused to give
     the freedom corn and clothes, even when the servants did get their freedom.
     Some of the petitions tell a great deal about the masters who might be some of
     the foremost people in the Province. In April 1681 the Court gave an order
     to protect a servant, Jane Jones, and the account in the record is worth quoting
     verbatim.

         “Ordered that Elias Nuthall doe without delay Cloath his servant Jane
         Jones with sufficient apparrell according to ye Lawes and customes of this
         Province in yt case made & provided, & also that the said Elias Comply with
         and fulfill the Order of Calvert County Court lately made concerning the
         said servant & likewise that the said Servant Jane Jones remaine in the
         custody of Henry Exon [the innholder] at st Johns untill the said ordr be