Early Maryland County Courts. lv
In a Kent County deposition made August 12, 1656, incidental
reference is made to a " meeteinge house" on the Severn River, Anne
Arundel
County (Arch. Md. liv, 68), doubtless a reference to a Puritan
congregation.
The interesting case of Joan Mitchell (Michael) involving
insinuations of
witchcraft and a counter suit for defamation, came up in the Charles
County
Court on November 14. 1659. Thomas Mitchell complained to the court
that
"Mis Hatche ", unquestionably the wife of John Hatch, one of Governor
Fen
dali's Council, had brought abuseful reproaches upon Joan, his wife,
in having
declared that Goodie Mitchell had bewitched her face so that " shee
endureth
abundance of Misery by the soarness of her mouth ", and two
depositions were
filed attesting to the fact that Mrs. Hatch had spread such evil
reports. The
matter seems to have been dropped, however, until nearly two years
later when
at the September 24, 1661, court Joan Mitchell, now a widow, brought
suits
for defamation against four prominent residents of Charles County,
including
Francis. Doughtie, the minister, for having "raysed schandalous
reports of
mee . . . that I salluted a woman at church and her teeth fell a
Acking as if
shee had been mad ". It was also testified that Mrs. Long, one of the
others
sued for defamation, had said that "the hene and Chickens that she had
of
Goodie Mitchell . . . did die in such a strang manner that she thaught
sum
old witch or other had bewitched them " (pp. 54-55, 139, 142, 144-145,
155,
156).