Note 36 — Chapter III · DOMESTIC SERVICE DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD

“The Forme of Binding a Servant” is given in A Relation of Maryland, pp. 62-63, and reads as follows:

This Indenture made the ____ day of ____ in the yeere of our Soveraigne Lord King Charles, &c. betweene ____ of the one party, and ____ on the other party, Witnesseth, that the said ____ doth hereby covenant promise, and grant to, and with the said ____ his Executors and Assignes, to serve him from the day of the date hereof, untill his first and next arrivall in Maryland; and after for and during the tearme of ____ yeeres, in such service and imployment as the said ____ or his assignes shall there imploy him, according to the custome of the countrey in the like kind. In consideration whereof, the said ____ doth promise and grant, to and with the said ____ to pay for his passing, and to find him with Meat, Drinke, Apparell and Lodging, with other necessaries during the said terme; and at the end of the said terme, to give him one whole yeeres provision of Corne, and fifty acres of Land, according to the order of the countrey. In witnesse whereof, the said ____ hath hereunto put his hand and scale, the day and yeere above written.

Sealed and delivered in the presence of ____

Neill, Virginia Carolorum, pp. 5-7, gives a similar copy. Bruce, II., 2, gives the indenture of one Mary Polly whose master was to “maintain ye sᵈ Mary noe other ways than he doth his own in all things as dyett, cloathing and lodging, the sᵈ Mary to obey the sᵈ John Porter in all his lawful commands within ye sᵈ term of years.”