Iviii PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY

authority, except that the 10,000 pound limitation was removed following rep-
resentations from the House of Delegates. 2 In the Blakiston commission the
authority was altered to the holding of plea of oyer and terminer in actions of tres-
pass against the form of any laws or statutes of England or the province, all actions
of trespass quare clausum fregit, all actions of debt, detinue sur trover and replevin
for any sum or sums of tobacco, money or account and all other personal actions
of whatsoever nature and kind "land always Excepted and foreprised." 3

By virtue of a 1692 Act the county courts in effect had exclusive jurisdiction in
suits at law for small debts. This act provided that "no action for a book debt or
plain bill for or under the sum of fifteen hundred pounds of Tobacco and Cask"
was to be prosecuted or commenced against any inhabitant of the province in
the Provincial Court, except upon appeal from the several county courts and in
the case of attorneys suing for their fees. However, no attorney of the Provincial
Court was to be allowed any privilege to bar suit against him in the county court
of the county in which he lived. If any plaintiff should commence or prosecute any
suit or plaint in the Provincial Court under the minimum amount, he was to be
nonsuited and to pay such costs as such court usually granted. 4

By statutes passed in 1694 and 1696 the county courts were deprived of jurisdic-
tion to hold pleas or to hear, try or determine any action brought before them
"either upon Bond, Bill Assumption recconing or Account" wherein the demand
made did not exceed the sum of 200 pounds of tobacco or 12 shillings sterling.
Jurisdiction over such actions was vested in single justices of the peace. Appar-
ently the recovery of small debts in the county courts by "due course of Law" was
regarded as so expensive and inconvenient that creditors chose to forfeit their rights
and debts rather than to sue for them. Conversely, it burdened debtors sued in
such courts who, being indigent and frequently sued, paid three times more in
costs than the amount of the original debt. 5 However, this jurisdictional limitation
was evaded by persons prosecuting "Suits of Contention rather than necessity" who
demanded more than 200 pounds of tobacco but upon trial, in many cases, the just
balance was under such amount. In order to prevent such evasion an additional
June, 1697 act provided that in all actions commenced in any county court, wherein
upon trial it appeared to the court that the just balance was under 200 pounds of
tobacco or 16s., 8d. sterling, the plaintiff should be non-suited and no judgment was
to be given in any county court for less than such sum. 6 A July, 1699 act sub-
stantially reenacted the provisions of the 1696 act but, instead of referring to the
amount of the demand made, referred to those actions "wherein the reall Debt or
Damages" did not exceed 200 pounds of tobacco or 16s., 8d. in money. 7

Common Law Actions

Prince Georges County Court entertained a substantial volume of common law
actions in the period covered by the Liber. While this volume makes reference to
almost nine hundred of such actions, many appear only fleetingly in dockets

2. Infra 186-87. Following the representation of the House of Delegates that the limitation
was a "Great Grievance" to the province, the crown law officers, asked whether the commissions
were limited by act of Assembly reported in the negative and further stated that the "former
Custom was Variable Some times Enlarged and some times Contracted." It was thereupon ordered
that "New Commissions issue out of the Secretary's Office to the Severall Counties of the
Province without limiting them to any Summ." 23 MA 127.

3. Infra 519-20.

4. 13 MA 447; 22 id. 501.

5. 38 id. 25, 93.

6. 38 id. 100. See also 19 id. 559.

7. 22 id. 500.