North Carolina Research : Genealogy and Local History / Helen F. M.
Leary, ed. Raleigh : North Carolina Genealogical Society, 1996
Notes from book.
BONDS
Societys legal device for ensuring proper conduct.
Most bonds contain the following facts:
1. Name of the obligor.
2. Names of sureties: often relatives and friends of the principal.
Should the principal forfeit the bond, they could be required to pay the
penal sum.
3. Name of obligee: a person or agency, usually official. Obligees might
be the state, county, governor, or the chairman or clerk of court.
4. Penal sum, which can be a fixed amount or an amount contingent on
something else administrators bonds were set at twice the estimated
value of the estate placed in his or her care.
5. Dates. Both the date of the bond and the duration of the conditions
or the expiration date.
6. Conditions, which can be general or specific
7. Signatures or marks appeared at the end.
8. Witness, usually the clerk of court.
9. County in which the bond was made.
Common bonds in North Carolina
Apprentice bonds. Used to provide for children who might become a
charge on the county. Such children were bonded to people who were to
provide them with vocational training and lifes necessities in exchange
for the apprentices labor. These were not bonds, but indentures or
contracts between local authorities and the master (mistress) setting
out their responsibilities and those of the apprentice.
1. Names of the parties. Before 1868, the agreement was between the
chairman of the county court and the master or mistress.
After 1868 the clerk of superior court, as judge of probate, covenanted
with an employer. However, when the parent apprenticed a child, neither
the chairman nor the clerk was a party to the indenture.
2. Date and place
3. Name of apprentice. Apprentices might be orphans, children whose
fathers had deserted them, poor children, freeborn bastards, children
with mothers of bad character, and those with shiftless parents. Boys
and girls, black or white, could be bound.
4. Parentage.
5. Apprentices age
6. The apprentices obligations
7. The masters obligations.
8. Signatures.
Bastardy bonds. When local officials discovered that an unmarried woman
had an illegitimate child or was pregnant with one, they questioned her
under oath about the identity of the childs father. The father was
then summoned before the county court to post bond. If the mother
refused to name the man, she was required to post bond herself, or some
relative of hers. The bastard took the mothers surname but could be
declared legitimate and given the fathers name, esp. of the parents
later married.
Official bonds. Before entering upon their duties, local officeholders
swore oaths, or affirmed their intention, to carry out the duties of the
office as required by law; they also posted bonds for the same purpose.
Officials included clerks of court, clerks and master in equity,
constables, coroners, county commissioners, entry takers, inspectors,
justices of the peace, registers of deeds, sheriffs, standards keepers,
superintendents of common schools, surveyors, tax collectors,
treasurers, treasurers of public buildings, and county trustees.
Tavern and Ordinary bonds. Taverns and ordinaries formerly provided
hotel, restaurant, stable, and saloon services. Also called public
houses and victualling houses, NC taverns and ordinaries were usually
private homes whose owners had official permission to charge the public
for food, drink, and sometimes lodging. Many were respectable
establishments operated by persons of high social standing and literacy.