THE LAST OF THE VILLAINS

It would be an interesting fact if we could ascertain the last bondsman by blood—*nativus de sanguine*—who lived in this country. The beginning of the seventeenth century is the period usually referred to as the date of the extinction of personal villenage. In the celebrated argument in the case of the negro Somerset (State Trials, vol. xx. p. 41), an instance as late as 1617-18 is cited as the latest in our law books. (See Noy's *Reports*, p. 27.) It is probably the latest recorded claim, but it is observable that the claim failed, and that the supposed villain was adjudged to be a free man.…