"20 May, 1658.â€â€Recognizances, taken before John Waterton esq. J. P., of John Tanner of London citizen and bricklayer and John Elliett of .... CO. Midd. fruiterer, in the sum of twenty pounds each; For the appearance of John Sands of RatcHffe in the parish of Stepney co. Midd. cooper at the next S. P. for Middlesex, 'to answeare such matters as shall be objected against him by Robert Pratt, who accuseth him of deluding and inticeing away his servants Robert Hownsden and John Overton out of his service and conveighing them over sea to Virginia, and also indeavouring to send away to the Virginia one other apprentice and servant of his namely Nathaniell Baker.' S. P. R., 17 Aug., 1658." (1)
(1) John Cordy Jeaffreson, Middlesex County Records, Vol. 3 (London: The Middlesex County Records Society, 1888), 271.
(2) Peter Wilson Coldham, "The 'Spiriting' of London Children to Virginia: 1648-1685," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 83, No. 3 (July 1975): 282.