servants according to the custom

Persons desirous of coming to America, and unable to pay for their passage in any other way, shipped themselves and their children, as servants. If they were imported under indenture, those indentures were held good, and they were to serve according to their stipulation; but if there was no indenture, they were to serve according to the custom, to wit, five years, if of full age, or above seventeen; and if under seventeen, 'till they arrived at the age of twenty-two, or in some places 'till twenty-four.