FREDERICKSBURG, March 11, 1772.
FIFTEEN POUNDS Reward for taking up, and delivering to me, my Man CHRISTMAS. He is a lusty, well made, genteel Fellow, has waited on me from my Infancy, can shave and dress extremely well, and is about thirty Years of Age; his complexion is rather light (his Father being a light Mulatto) very pleasant, and well featured. He has been inoculated for the Smallpox, but has no Marks except the scar of the incision on one arm, and at present a large cut on his Shin, the effect of a late Night Revel; he can read, is very fluent of Speech, speaks with great Propriety, and is so artful that he can invent a plausible Tale at a Moment's Warning, which makes me suspect that he will now pass unmolested, under some pretence or other, as a Freeman; which I presume will be most desirable to him; though he has lived little short of it with me, having been too much indulged, and being very idle during my present indisposition, he has grown wanton in Licentiousness, and several gross acts of ill Behaviour this Week past, are now completed by an elopement last Monday Night. It will be in vain to describe his Dress, as he has already changed his Livery, and it seems has taken a brown Kersey Waistcoat belonging to my Cook, which I Presume he will retain as Part of his Dress. The above Reward will be proportioned, and paid according to the Distance he may be taken up and brought home, namely, Five Pounds if above twenty and under fifty Miles, Ten Pounds if above fifty and under a Hundred Miles, and Fifteen Pounds for any Distance above a Hundred Miles in this Colony; but if he is taken out of the Colony, I will give twenty pounds.
[tf] JAMES MERCER.