gon-master till the fall
of 1778.... In July, 1778, the Runaway, John Martin, had come on the
land in his absence. The Fair-play men put Greer in possession. If a man
went into the army, the Fair-play men protected his property."[34]
Meginness mentions a similar decision in the case of John Toner and
Morgan Sweeney.[35] Sweeney had attempted to turn a lease for
improvements in Toner's behalf to possession for himself, but the
Northumberland County Court honored the Fair Play rule concerning
military service and decided in favor of Toner.

The summary process of ejectment utilized by the Fair Play men,
occasionally with militia support, is evident from William King's
deposition in the Huff-Latcha case. King, having sold his right to one
William Paul, recounts the method as follows:

William Paul went on the land and finished his cabin. Soon after a
party b[r]ought Robert Arthur and built a cabin near Paul's in which
Arthur lived. Paul applied to the Fair-play men who decided in favor
of Paul. Arthur would not go off. Paul made a complaint to the
company at a muster at Quinashahague[36] that Arthur still lived on
the land and would not go off, although the Fair-play men had
decided against him. I was one of the officers at that time and we
agreed to come and run him off. The most of the company came down as
far as Edmund Huff's who kept Stills. We got a keg of whisk[e]y and
proceeded to Arthur's cabin. He was at home with his rifle in his
hand and his wife had a bayonet on a stick, and they threatened
death to the first person who would enter the house. The door was
shut and Thomas Kemplen, our captain, made a run at the door, burst
it open and instantly seized Arthur by the neck. We pulled down the
cabin, threw it into the river, lashed two canoes together and put
Arthur and his family and his goods into them and sent them down the
river. William Paul then lived undisturbed upon the land until the
Indians drove us all away.[37] William Paul was then (1778) from
home on a militia tour.[38]

Although land disputes offer documentary evidence of the Fair Play
system, it seems quite likely that the tribunal's jurisdiction extended
to other matters. A few anecdotes, obviously based quite tenuously upon
hearsay, will suffice to illustrate. Joseph Antes, son of Colonel Henry
Antes, used to tell this story: It seems that one Francis Clark, who
lived ju