RAN AWAY last night from the subscribers [the undersigned], an English servant man named John Scott, a square well made fellow, about five feet four inches high, a good complexion, something sunburnt, wears his own brown straight hair; took with him a blue cloth coat with a red plush cape, a good scarlet knit jacket with calamanco back, old buckskin breeches, a pair of double channeled pumps capped at each toe, but may change his cloaths, as he stole a very good dark claret coloured coat with yellow buttons; he is a very artful [1] scoundrel. Also a white woman, something taller than the fellow, of a very dark complexion, a ring-worm on her upper lip, a small scar on one cheek; she has left behind a mulatto bastard, [2] for having which she is bound to appear next in court; It is probable they will pass for man and wife. TWENTY SHILLINGS Reward for each if taken in the county, and FORTY SHILLINGS each if taken fifty miles from home, will be paid by, WILLIAM BORDLEY, and WOOLMAN GIBSON the 3rd.

1. Artful is superior cunning combined with verbal grace in talking one's way into a better position, meaning John was not just "sly," but a man with some social ability.

2. Note that the woman is unnamed. She was "white" but also "extremely dark" so may have been a Quadroon or Octoroon and the bastard might belong to a white man, such as her owner. If the child had been John's they may still have left it behind as it would be taken from them in any case. This is what the court appearance would be about: extending the term of service of the mother and the father and assigning the child as a servant to a third party, with the child's term of service ranging up to 31 years, with the first 10 years considered a burden on the owner, to be paid off with an additional 10 years of labor beyond the age of majority. The "ring worm" was a term for a welting scar, often sustained in beatings.