Charles Mitchell states that twelve-year-old Jeremiah, a free person of color, was apprenticed to Joseph Bishop of New York "to learn the art & trade of navigation." In January 1818, Bishop and Jeremiah moved to Baltimore where Bishop imprisoned the boy "with intent to sell him to Georgia." Bishop was arrested and sent to jail. Mitchell "in order to rescue the said boy from the power & control of said Bishop" applied to the Orphans Court to bind Jeremiah to him. The court declined, claiming it did not have jurisdiction to dissolve the previous indenture, and referred Mitchell to the City Court, which had the indenture binding Jeremiah to Bishop annulled. Mitchell has learned that Edward Gray, the magistrate who confined Bishop to jail, applied to the Orphans Court to have Jeremiah bound to him and put the boy to work in a factory. Mitchell believes that Gray represented Jeremiah as a homeless vagrant, disregarding the fact that Jeremiah had been an apprentice in New York. Mitchell asks the court to summon Gray, compel him to produce Jeremiah, and annul Gray's indenture of Jeremiah.
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Repository: Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland
