O Say Can You See

The Counsel for the defendant prayed the direction of the Court to the Jury, "that if from the Evidence in the Cause they are of opinion that a woman called Joyce the Ancestor of the Petitioner was a negro woman and carried with her owner claiming her as a slave from the Island of Barbadoes to England, and afterwards brought into this Country by Lord Baltimore as a slave claiming her as a Slave between the years 1678 and 1681, and that she during her life was held and and treated as a slave, and that her issue have been held as Slaves ever since, that then they must find a Verdict from the defendant. But the Court refused to give the said Direction to the Jury to which Opinion the Court the defendant by his Counsel prayed leave to except and that the according to the statute in such case made and provided, and that they would sign and seal this his bill of exceptions, which is accordingly done &c

Jeremiah Townley Chase (Seal)
John Done (Seal)