Much Given to Strong Liquor, and Low Company

Runaway servants were not an uncommon phenomenon in the 18th century. One source estimates that between 20-25% of indentured servants fled their masters. More Pennsylvanians fled indentured servitude between 1773 and 1775 than during any comparable three-year period. From the genealogist's standpoint, this presents a methodological problem since it was in the runaway's best interest to conceal his/her identity after making a successful getaway. Joseph Lee Boyle's transcriptions of the runaway ads, taken from thirty-two different colonial newspapers (including papers from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, and New York) and covering the period 1773-1775, provide valuable demographic information on about 3,500 individuals, with name, age, sex, height, plate of origin, clothing, occupation, speech, physical imperfections, and sometimes personal vignettes.