This is of interest to anyone interested in L-1 George and new info to me. Donna L-3 This Was the Life, Excerpts from the Judgment Records of Frederick County, Maryland, 1748-1765 About this book Source: Original data: Rice, Millard Milburn. This Was the Life: Excerpts from the Judgment Records of Frederick County, Maryland, 1748-1765. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2002. Description: This book is composed of extracts from the Judgment Records of Frederick County, Maryland, from the county's formation in 1748 to 1765. Since the Frederick County Court was the sole governing body of the county, as well as its civil and criminal court, the record of its actions covers every phase of colonial life. Here is reflected not only laws and customs, but humor and tragedy, compassion and cruelty-a daily record, in fact, of events in the life of the inhabitants of this important Maryland county. The records of the proceedings of the County Court (the Judgment Records) deal with a wide range of activities and issues, and therefore a substantial number of Frederick County residents appear in the records, which include orphan, bastardy, and custody cases; civil and criminal suits; and a host of petitions for apprenticeships, articles of indenture, appointments, surveys, and licenses. Few books dealing with the early residents of Frederick County provide such insights, and fewer still give accounts of such a large number of persons. The thousands of individuals who are referenced in these pages are not easily forgotten, neither by the genealogist nor the general reader, and it is thanks to the meticulous researches of the compiler that such a clear picture of these people emerges. -------------------------- pg, 34-35 March Court 1749-50 The follow ing two cases are of interest not only because a member of the Beatty family is involved, but also as one of the few instances in which a man was accused of bastardy, or in this case fornication. The first case involves George Beatty and Alice Dorsey. The charge against Beatty is "that he was guilty of fornication with a certain Alice Dorsey .... Beatty in his proper person in Court here comes and says that he cannot gainsay but that he is guilty of the premises above to him in form aforesaid imposed and thereof submits himself to the Grace of the Court here. " "Whereupon the premises being seen and by the Court here fully understood, it is considered by the same Court that the said George Beatty be fined 30 shillings current money for his offense aforesaid and give sufficient security to keep Alice Dorsey's bastard child off the County and hereupon the said George Beatty in Court here pays to George Gordon, Esquire, 30 shillings current money for the fine aforesaid." "At the same time, to wit, the third Tuesday in March aforesaid, the said George Beatty and also Thomas Beatty of Frederick County, Gentleman, and John Kimbol of the same County, farmer, in their proper persons in Court here acknowledge themselves to owe and stand justly indebted unto His Lordship the Lord Proprietor in the full and just sum of £40 current money which they and every of them yielded and granted should be made and levied of their respective goods and chattels, lands and tenaments into whosoever hands they shall come to the use of His said Lordship, his heirs and successors, on condition that the inhabitants of Frederick County aforesaid from time to time and at all times hereafter be well and truly saved harmless and indemnified from any charge, cost or expense in the maintenance of the bastard child of the aforesaid Alice Dorsey and which was sworn to him and the said George Beatty is dismissed. " Alice Dorsey was accused as follows: "That a certain Alice Dorsey was guilty of having a bastard child .... The said Alice Dorsey by Daniel Dulany, Jr., her attorney, comes ana says that she cannot gainsay but that she is guilty of the premises and submits herself to the Grace of the Court here," "It is considered by the Court here that the said Alice Dorsey be fined 30 shillings current money for her offense aforesaid according to Act of Assembly." She paid her fine through her attorney and was dismissed.