lxxiv PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY

However, there is nothing in the wording of this act to explain why resort was had
to an information in this one instance. It should also be noted that the device of
"swearing the peace" was not resorted to as a form of process.

The precept to the sheriff to summon a grand jury was included in the commis-
sion to the justices; as noted, the province laws provided that such summoning
was to take place in any event at the March, June and November courts, and per-
haps oftener in the discretion of the justices. The mechanics of summoning grand
juries at other courts is not revealed by the formalistic entries of the Liber, except
that in a few instances the sheriff was ordered in open court to summon a grand
jury to consider specific presentments. That the summoning took the form of a
judicial writ (two venires are mentioned in some Somerset entries) and that jurors
were summoned from each hundred on a systematic basis seems likely from
contemporary practice in other counties. The individual jurors were summoned
by the sheriff by means of a subpoena.10

In any event, after the court met it commanded the sheriff to cause to come
before it the "grand inquest" summoned by him and to return the panel thereof.
The panel being returned and the jurors therein being called, they would come
before the court. These grand jurors were required by law to be freeholders of
the county. Most of the grand juries consisted of from 15 to 20 jurors; in only three
instances did they reach 24. Whether the sheriff usually attempted to impanel 24
jurors does not appear.

After coming before the court the jurors all took the oath of a grand juryman
(the text of this oath does not appear in the Liber or in the laws), seemingly ad-
ministered by the clerk of the indictments. If the court made any charges to the
grand jury (the Liber entries reflect only a charge relating to the defense of the
province), they would have been made at this point. The jurors then went out to
consider the presentments that should come before them. Normally the person or
persons giving information would appear before the grand jury (occasionally dep-
ositions were used in some county courts); presumably such persons would be put
under oath. In the case of presentments for defaming two of the justices the court
ordered the sheriff to summon the witnesses, swore them as evidence for the crown,
and then sent them to the grand jury to inform. u In most cases the names of the
witnesses who appeared before the grand jury are merely noted in the margin of
the Liber, opposite the presentment, under the designation "Witnesses Sworne."
Probably these names were endorsed on the bill. Presumably these witnesses were
also first sworn by the court and then sent to the grand jury to inform.

In at least one county (Baltimore) the rules of court provided for a judicial
screening of presentments. Upon any complaint or information brought to the

10. For the exceptions see infra 255-58, 361-63. Compare the form of entry found in neighbor-
ing Charles County (CCCR, Liber V, No. 1 [1696-98], 23): "It was Commanded the sherife that
hee should Cause to Come here this day that is to say the Eleaventh day of August four good and
Lawfull men out of Every Respective Hundred within the County before the Justices of our
Sovereigne Lord the King for Charles County to make up a grand Inquest for the body of the said
County as well to Enquire into all trespasses Contempts and Misdemeanours Comitted against
the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King as allsoe into the breach of any of the penall Lawes or
Acts of Assembly of this Province and all other matters and things that shall be given them in
Charge etc." In Baltimore County it was a rule of court "for the more Spedy dispatch of Criminall
Matters that the Clerk of the Court doe at some Convenient time before the Twentieth day of
July ... send forth a venire to the Sherriffe of the County Directed for the Sumoning and Im-
pannelling a Grand Jury to be and appear at September Court then next following To Enquire
into the Breach of all penall Acts and Other Offenses Committed against their Majesties peace...."
BCCP, Liber G, No. 1 (1693-96), 551-52. For the use of subpoenas to summon grand jurors see
the disallowed account of Sheriff Thomas Greenfield. PGCJ, Liber B, 134-134a and also infra
256.

11. Infra 256-57.