Giles Butler v. John Somerville. Petition for Freedom William G. Thomas III transcription and encoding Kaci L. Nash University of Nebraska-Lincoln University of Maryland National Endowment for the Humanities 2020 O Say Can You See University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
319 Love Library University of Nebraska–Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-4100 cdrh@unl.edu
oscys.mdcase.0014.051 oscys.caseid.0594 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Derivatives must be credited to O Say Can You See, made available non-commercially, and distributed under the same terms. Requests for permission for commercial publication or other use should be emailed to the project team.

Petition for Freedom May 17, 1790 Our transcription is based on a digital image of the original. Maryland State Archives General Court of the Western Shore (Judgments) MSA S498-14 Supplementary Documents Petition Civil Petition for Freedom October 1791 Butler, Eleanor Butler, Eleanor Butler, Bett Somerville, George Saint Mary's County (Md.) Butler, Giles Somerville, John Duvall, Gabriel, 1752-1844 Maryland. General Court of the Western Shore Annapolis (Md.) transcribed; encoded

To the honourable the Judges of the General Court

The Petition of Giles Butler humbly sheweth That he is unjustly detained and held in Slavery by a certain George Somervell of Saint Marys County, when he is entitled to his freedom, being the son of Bett Butler who was the daughter of Eleaner Butler, who was the daughter of Eleanor Butler, a free white woman. He therefore prays your honours to grant a Summons against the said George Somervell to appear before your Honours and answer the premises, and that he enter into the usual recognizance not to ill treat your petitioner, and that he be permitted to attend his Council when necessary and so forth

G. Duvall for petr

17th may 1790.

Giles Butler v. Geo. Somervell.

Peto.

filed 17th May 1790

Octo 1791

Depo as Thos vs Iezreal Penn at May 1792.

Giles Butler v John Somerville admr of George Somerville

Petition for Freedom

Entd JG. No 13. folio 32.

(Octo 1791)