cviii PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY

the goods and chattels of any such persons so neglecting, refusing or hindering
and upon occasion of all such executions the clerk and sheriff of the county con-
cerned were to issue out and serve execution without any fee or reward. A 1695
act provided that in the event any person marked any arms, not entered with the
respective clerks of the several militia companies, with the marks adopted by
such companies, he should suffer a penalty of 400 pounds of tobacco to be levied
and assessed by the militia officers and execution awarded thereon. 89

A 1692 act provided that no execution should issue out of any court in the
province in any cause or matter whatsoever against the body or goods of any in-
habitant until the 10th of October of any year for any debt or upon any judgment
issued or recovered against such inhabitant between the 10th of April and the
10th of October in such year. This prohibition was subject to the condition that
the person, against whom the judgment was obtained, immediately come before
one or more justices of the Provincial Court or two or more justices of the county
court in which the judgment was obtained, with two other persons approved by
the justices, and confess judgment to the party who had obtained the judgment for
the debt and costs of suit adjudged with a cessat executio (stay of execution) until
the October 10th next following. A certificate to this effect under the hand or
hands of the justice or justices before whom the judgment was confessed was to be a
sufficient supersedeas to the sheriff to forebear serving execution upon the body
or goods of the person so obtaining such certificate. If the party against whom judg-
ment was obtained was taken in execution before such certificate was procured, a
certificate obtained afterwards was to be a sufficient supersedeas to the sheriff for
release of such party from imprisonment upon execution, the party released paying
or giving security to the sheriff for his due fees for such imprisonment. The justice
or justices before whom judgment was so confessed were to return such judgment
to the court where the first judgment was obtained to be entered upon record. 90

The 1692 act was superseded by a 1697/8 act which, after reiterating the provi-
sions of the earlier act, provided that judgment might be confessed before the
mayor, recorder or any two aldermen of the City of St. Marys or two commissioners
of the Port of Annapolis and that after the October 10th date, it would be lawful
to take out execution upon the judgment confessed without any scire facias or other
delay, any law, practice, usage or custom to the contrary. A 1699 act made it clear
that execution taken out after October 10th on the judgment confessed might be
against the principal, or the securities or all or any of them. 91

The reason for these acts is found in the legislative recital that many inhabitants
of the province had been exceedingly grieved and burdened by executions laid
upon them in summer time when it was impossible for them to procure tobacco
for the payment and satisfaction of their creditors. As a result they were often
kept in prison a long time and prevented from tending their crops to their great
prejudice, if not ruin, and thereby left destitute of any means of satisfying their
creditors.

Where judgment was had in the county court in any matter and the party against
whom judgment was obtained fled into another county, out of the jurisdiction of
the court, a 1692 statute provided that it should be lawful for the plaintiff to ob-
tain a certificate from the justices of such court as to such flight and thereupon
the justices of the Provincial Court were to award execution against the body or

89. 13 id. 554; 22 id. 562; 38 id. 55.

90. 13 id. 519.

91. 38 id. III; 22 id. 466.