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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.

See also the companion volume to this book, New Facts and Old Families from the Records of Frederick County, Maryland.