apters. At the time of his
arrival in the country he was a young man of twenty-one years of
age but in the course of time his education and natural abilities
made him one of the most prominent citizens of Maugerville. He was
elected a representative for Sunbury county in the Nova Scotia
legislature in 1768, and his name occurs a few years later as a
justice of the Peace for the county. Several of Justice Perley's
court documents are to be found among the old records of the
county of Sunbury, one of which reads as follows:

"County of Sunbury:--Be it Remembered that on the Seventh Day of
July, 1774, Nathaniel Barker of Maugerville in the County of
Sunbury and Province of Nova Scotia, yeoman, cometh before Me,
Israel Perley, one of his Majesty's Justices assigned to keep the
Peace in the sd County, and Informeth against himself that he had
been this day guilty of a breach of the King's Peace, viz., by
Striking with his fist the body of Rich'd Estey Jun'r of the town,
County and Province aforesaid, yeoman, for which offence he is
willing to submit to such a fine as the Law Requires.

"The sd Richard Estey Jun'r personally appeareth at the same time
and Declareth before me that he forgives the sd. Nathaniel Barker
the Injury he had Done him, being Convinced that it was not of
malice aforethought but the Effect of sudden passion: for which
Breach of peace I have fined the sd Nath'l Barker to the king one
Shilling.

"ISRAEL PERLEY."

However all the cases that came before Esquire Perley were not settled
in a manner so creditable to the offending party. The following case
will serve for illustration:

On the 22 June, 1775, a resident of Morrisania,[125] who shall be
nameless, was arrested on information laid by Richard Barlow for using
seditious and profane language. Abigail Barlow, wife of the
complainant, testified that the offender had in her presence uttered
the following words "The king I believe is a d--d Roman, and if he was
standing now in that corner by G-- I would shoot him, or stab him,"
with many other words to the same purpose. The prisoner was convicted
of profane swearing, and the magistrate decreed that he should forfeit
for that offence the sum of two shillings currency to the use of the
poor of the town of Maugerville, and it was further ordered that the
prisoner "stands charged with the Treasonable words spoken against the
King till he shall be further called upon to an