O Say Can You See

In this case the plaintiff offered and was permitted by the court to prove that she was imported into the State of Virginia about the year 1783 by William Lyles the father of William H Lyles under whom the Defendant claims and she was carried by back to Maryland by the said William Lyles after he had kept her more than one year in Virginia, to which permission the defendant objected upon the following grounds alledging that the claim for the freedom of the Plaintiff was founded upon the importation set forth in the petition and the Statement of the counsel made in this case and also because the defendant in consequence of his not being informed that the importation by William Lyles the elder was a ground upon which the plaintiff claimed her freedom and beleiving the case made out by the papers filed when the Plaintiff was permitted to institute the present suit was the sole ground upon which the claim for her freedom was intended to be insisted on and therefore he was unprepared to meet the ground of importation by William Lyles the elder the Defendant also gave in evidence the following certificate in these words. Wm H Lyles &c here insert the same.

And the court instructed the Jury that the said oath so taken was not a compliance with the requisites of the act of Assembly by the said William Hy. Lyles as the importer of the Plaintiff unless the Jury should be satisfied by the evidence that the said oath was taken by the said W H Lyles within sixty days after his removal from Maryland to the County of Alexandria

To which permission & instruction the Defendant excepts & prays that this his bill of exceptions may be signed sealed and enrolled, which is done accordingly.

W. Cranch (seal)
N Fitzhugh (seal)
Allen B Duckett (seal)