Moore. It being the
earliest case mentioned anywhere in the records of the colony, great
interest attaches to it.

"JENNY SLEW of Ipswich in the County of Essex, spinster,
Pltff., agst. JOHN WHIPPLE, Jun., of said Ipswich Gentleman,
Deft., in a Plea of Trespass that the said John on the 29th
day of January, A.D. 1762, at Ipswich aforesaid with force
and arms took her the said Jenny, held and kept her in
servitude as a slave in his service, and has restrained her
of her liberty from that time to the fifth of March last
without any lawful right & authority so to do and did her
other injuries against the peace & to the damage of said
Jenny Slew as she saith the sum of twenty-five pounds. This
action was first brought at last March Court at Ipswich when
& where the parties appeared & the case was continued by
order of Court to the then next term when and where the
Pltff appeared & the said John Whipple Jun, came by Edmund
Trowbridge, Esq. his attorney & defended when he said that
there is no such person in nature as Jenny Slew of Ipswich
aforesaid, Spinster, & this the said John was ready to
verify wherefore the writ should be abated & he prayed
judgment accordingly which plea was overruled by the Court
and afterwards the said John by the said Edmund made a
motion to the Court & praying that another person might
endorse the writ & be subject to cost if any should finally
be for the Court but the Court rejected the motion and then
Deft. saving his plea in abatement aforesaid said that he is
not guilty as the plaintiff contends, & thereof put himself
on the Country, & then the cause was continued to this term,
and now the Pltff. reserving to herself the liberty of
joining issue on the Deft's plea aforesaid in the appeal
says that the defendant's plea aforesaid is an insufficient
answer to the Plaintiff's declaration aforesaid and by law
she is not held to reply thereto & she is ready to verify
wherefore for want of a sufficient answer to the Plaintiff's
declaration aforesaid she prays judgment for her damages &
costs & the defendant consenting to the waiving of the
demurrer on the appeal said his plea aforesaid is good &
because the Pltff refuses to reply thereto He prays judgment
for his cost. It is considered by the Court that the
de