November 1741, Maryland

Charles County, Maryland. Tobacco is being air-cured in a family-sized tobacco barn near Pomfert, Ma . . . -

November 1741- A bizarre tale concerning the body of Richard Roby.

Charles County Court Records, November 1741 Court, Liber T#2, Page 301-302

It was commanded that the Sheriff: should take Richard Roby, late of Charles County, planter, and him safe keep so that he should have his body before next November Charles County Court, to satisfy unto Jonathan Davies Jr, 2254 lbs of tobacco, a debt which to the said Jonathan lately in said Court recovered against him, and 283 lbs of tobacco for his damages which he had by occasion of detaining that debt. And now here, the Sheriff: returns to the Court here the writ aformentioned thus endorsed, viz, The Plaintiff releases the penalty on the Defendants paying the principle: interest and damages; and these words following, viz, Cepi Corpus, Richard Tarvin, Sheriff. And with the writ aforementioned he returns to this Court the following supersedeas:

You, Richard Roby of Charles County, planter, Thomas Roby and Michael Hinds Roby of Charles County, planters, do confess judgment to Jonathan Davies Jr, for 2254 lbs of tobacco, a debt, and 283 lbs of tobacco, damages, which was recovered by said Jonathan Davies Jr against the said Richard Roby on Aug 11 in Charles County, the said sums to be levied of your bodies, goods, or chattels, lands or tenements, for the use of the said Jonathan Davies in case the said Richard Roby does not pay to said Jonathan Davies, the said sums of 2254 lbs of tobacco debt as aforementioned, and 283 lbs of tobacco damages so as aforementioned recovered against him, with additional costs thereon on next Feb 10.

The above supersedeas taken and ack. before us, two Charles County Justices, on Aug 3, 1741. Signed - Robert Hanson, S Hanson.

(Michael Hines Robey is my fifth great granduncle. Our common ancestors are John Robey & Sarah Hines Luckett.)

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1734 Virginia

1734- Quakers arrive in Loudoun County, Virginia, settling to the southward. This untamed wilderness was settled from two directions. From Virginia's Tidewater came farm managers, slaves, and indentured servants working for the aristocracy. They came to develop tobacco farms in the piedmont plain of Eastern Loudoun. From the Shenandoah Valley and from Pennsylvania came the Quakers, Germans, and Scots-Irish who wished to start small farms. They chose the west, near the mountains, in the Loudoun and Catoctin Valleys where the soil was good and the climate congenial. They also chose to grow their wheat without the help of slave labor.

Christiana Potts is born to David Potts and Elizabeth Jane Lane in Loudoun County, Virginia.

(Christiana Potts is my 5th great grand aunt.)

History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia

The Maryland Tobacco Inspection Act of 1747

The Maryland Tobacco Inspection Act of 1747 established that all tobacco had to be inspected by colonial inspectors. Once the tobacco was inspected, tobacco "notes" were issued that certified the quality. Whoever held these tobacco notes owned the tobacco. A grower could pay a merchant 100 pounds of tobacco by simply signing over the notes to him. That way, he could go to the warehouse with the notes in hand and claim the tobacco as his. He could also give the merchant an I.O.U. that promised to pay him 100 pounds of tobacco in the future, when his crop came in. Before the Inspection Act, the merchant would be less willing to accept this I.O.U., since he would not be sure of the quality of tobacco. After the Inspection Act, the I.O.U. could promise to pay in "certified" tobacco.

Paper tobacco notes more easily functioned as money because bulk tobacco was hard to transport and the quality of tobacco was assured.

1754 Maryland

1754- John Worland II has died in Charles County, Maryland.

(John II Worland Jr. is my 5th great grandfather.)

April 1, 1754- Possible birth date of Eleanor Worland, daughter of John Worland III and his first wife. It has been my supposition that this first wife, whose name is lost to us, possibly died during this birth. However, Eleanor may have been born as early as 1752, as the Maryland census of 1776 lists her age as 24.

(Eleanor Worland is my 3rd great grand aunt, her father John Worland III is my 4th great grandfather.)

From the following document, we do know that John had wed his second wife, Rebecca, by November, 1754.

Nov 13, 1754-  from John Warland of Charles County, planter, to the Reverend Samuel Clagett of Charles County. John Warland, late of Charles County, deceased, and father to John Warland, party to these presents, was seized of a tract of land in William & Mary Parish in Charles County called New Alford, containing about 86 acres, by patent, which said tract the said John Warland the younger has sufficient reason to believe was sold by his father to George Thomas, sometime since of Charles County, now dead, and for which said George Thomas paid a valuable consideration whereby he possessed said tract many years, and by his will, devised the tract to his grandson, Benjamin Compton of Charles County, who has since sold conveyed the premises to the aforementioned Claget, and for which he has received 10,000 lbs of tobacco. Now as the deed from John Warland the Elder to George Thomas aforementioned, though neglect or misconduct, cannot readily be found upon record. Said John Warland the younger being satisfied of the justness of this matter, and for 1000 lbs of tobacco to him paid by said Clagett, Warland sells Clagett the tract of land called New Alford.
Signed - John Warland.
Witnesses- Robert Yates, Charles Blanford,
 Rebecca, wife of said John Warland, relinquished her right of dower to the lands within mentioned, Recorded Nov 13, 1754.
 
Charles County Land Record Book A#2, 1752-1756; Page (242).
 
1754- Samuel Archibald Pike is born to John Pike and Kezia Hackett in St. Mary's, Maryland.
 
(Samuel Archibald Pike is my 4th great grand uncle.)

1754- Mary Newton is born to Elizabeth and Clement Newton in St. Mary's, Maryland.

(Mary Newton is my 4th great grand aunt. Our common ancestors are Clement Newton and Elizabeth.)

1755 Maryland

1755- Maryland is a plantation colony, with tobacco dominating the provincial economy. European demands for tobacco provoke the colonists to increase production. Most of Maryland's inhabitants make their living working on their own or someone else's plantation.

Tobacco is a labor-intensive crop. Each slave or indentured servant working on a tobacco plantation in colonial days may have planted and weeded about two acres of cleared land with 10,000 plants a year, requiring bending over perhaps 50,000 times.

40% of the population is black, however not all of these persons were enslaved. For one reason, it was not uncommon for the landowner to free mulatto children in his will.

Charles Ball, Slave, Speaks of Maryland

"...the masters in Maryland only allowed the men one wool hat, one pair of shoes, two shirts, two pair of trousers-- one pair of tow cloth, and one of woollen--and one woollen jacket in the year. The women were furnished in proportion. All other clothes they had to provide for themselves. Children not able to work in the field, were not provided with clothes at all, by their masters. It is, however, honourable to the Maryland slave-holders, that they never permit women to go naked in the fields, or about the house; and if the men are industrious and employ themselves well on Sundays and holydays, they can always keep themselves in comfortable clothes."

"It is true, that from the period when the tobacco plants are set in the field, there is no resting time until it is housed; but it is planted out about the first of May, and must be cut and taken out of the field before the frost comes. After it is hung and dried, the labour of stripping and preparing it for the hogshead in leaf, or of manufacturing it into twist, is comparatively a work of leisure and ease. Besides, on almost every plantation the hands are able to complete the work of preparing the tobacco by January, and sometimes earlier; so that the winter months form some sort of respite from the toils of the year. The people are obliged, it is true, to occupy themselves in cutting wood for the house, making rails and repairing fences, and in clearing new land, to raise the tobacco plants for the next year; but as there is usually time enough, and to spare, for the completion of all this work, before the season arrives for setting the plants in the field, the men are seldom flogged much, unless they are very lazy or negligent, and the women are allowed to remain in the house, in very cold, snowy, or rainy weather. I who am intimately acquainted with the slavery, both of Maryland and Virginia, and know that there is no material difference between the two, aver, that a description of one is a description of both; and that the coloured people here have many advantages over those of the cotton region."

 From: Slavery in the United States.

A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball,
a Black Man, Who Lived Forty Years in Maryland,
South Carolina and Georgia, as a Slave Under Various
Masters, and was One Year
in the Navy with Commodore Barney, During the Late War.