Pages 529-558
|  Pages 583-602
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| Pages 529-558
| Pages 583-602
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| CHAP. XL. An act for the more speedy recovery of debts due to this commonwealth [Passed January the 7th, 1788.] | |
| I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That lands and tenements shall and may by virtue of writs of fieri facias be taken and sold in satisfaction of all | Land of sheriffs and public collectors may be taken |
| judgments to be hereafter obtained on behalf of the commonwealth against any sheriff, coroner, or other public collector, or against his or their security, or securities, Provided, That the same shall not extend to any such security or securities who shall have become so before the passing of this act. | on a fieri facias on judgments of commonwealth. |
| II. Every judgment obtained against any sheriff, coroner, or other public collector shall bind the property of the lands and tenements of such public debtor from the date thereof. | Judgments to bind the lands, from their date. |
| III. When the goods and chattels taken in execution to satisfy a judgment of the commonwealth by virtue of a fieri facias, shall not in the opinion of the officer levying the same be sufficient to satisfy the debt with damages and costs, the sheriff or other officer shall at the same time give public notice at the churches, and meeting-houses, if any there be, and court-house of his county on the next court-day, and shall moreover give notice to the owner if he be in the county, or otherwise to his agent, if any such be known, at some time appointed in the notice, not less than ninety nor more than ninety six days from the time of levying the execution, that the said lands and tenements will be exposed to sale by auction on the premises, or at such other place in the county as the owner shall by writing under his hand delivered to the officer direct. | Rules, as to levying executions on lands. |
| IV. If the public debtor against whom a judgment shall be entered have several parcels of land which lie in one and the same county, he or his agent may by writing under his hand at any time before the day of sale, require the sheriff or officer to whom a writ of fieri facias upon the judgment shall be directed to make the debt or damages and costs of such of the said parcels of land as the owner or his agent shall think proper; and if the parcels lie in different counties, the clerk shall and may at the like request in writing direct the fieri facias to the sheriff or officer of any county which the party or his agent, making oath or solemn affirmation that he hath lands there, shall particularly mention at any time before the writ shall be delivered to the officer. And if the debt, damages and costs be made of any other parcel of land, or of land lying in any other county than that mentioned in such written requisition, the sale of such other parcel of the land in such other county shall be void. If the owner | Debtor may specify the lands to be sold. |
| of the land before or at the day of sale shall not make payment of the debt due to the public, the sheriff or officer shall proceed to sell the said lands and tenements, or such estate and interest as the party convict shall have therein, or so much thereof as will be sufficient, laid off in one intire parcel if it may be done, in such place and manner as he or his agent if he think proper shall direct, for ready money or other property as the demand may be, and the costs; but if the estate cannot be sold for three fourths of its value in the opinion of the valuers of the county, he shall sell the same upon three months credit, taking bond of the purchasers with sufficient surety or sureties for payment to the chief magistrate of this commonwealth for the time being. Every bond thus taken shall mention on what occasion the same was taken, and shall by the sheriff or officer be immediately returned to the clerk's office from whence it issued, there safely to be kept, and when due, execution thereon may be awarded in the same manner, and on the same conditions that executions are now awarded on replevy bonds, and shall in like manner be indorsed by the clerk that no security is to be taken. | Lands how sold. |
| V. In all sales of lands by virtue of an execution the sheriff or other officer shall convey the same to the purchaser at his costs by deed in writing, indented, sealed, and recorded as the laws direct for other conveyances of land, which deeds shall recite the execution, purchase, and consideration, and shall be effectual for passing to the purchaser all the estate and interest which the debtor had and might lawfully part with in the lands. | How conveyed. |
| VI. If the lands and tenements, goods and chattels of any sheriff, coroner, or other public collector, are insufficient to satisfy the debt, damages and costs due to the public, judgment shall be obtained against his security or securities in the same summary way that judgment may by law be obtained against his or their principal, and the lands and tenements, goods and chattels of such security or securities, except as before excepted, shall be taken in execution to satisfy the balance of such lands and tenements, goods and chattels of his or their principal may be taken and sold agreeable to this act. | If lands &c. of sheriff are insufficient, judgment may be obtained against securities. |
| VII. In every writ of fieri facias upon judgments hereafter to be obtained by the commonwealth against any sheriff, coroner, or other public collector after the words "We command you that of the" the clerk from whose office such writ shall issue shall insert the words "Lands and tenements" and conform the subsequent part of such writ thereto. | For of executions against sheriffs, &c. |
| VIII. And whereas large sums of money are retained in the hands of sheriffs and other public collectors to the great injury of the commonwealth: For remedy whereof, Be it enacted, That where the property of any sheriff, coroner, or other public collector, or their securities have been taken in execution to satisfy a judgment obtained by the commonwealth, and the same were not sold for want of buyers, and return thereon hath been made to that effect, or where the property of any sheriff, coroner, or other public collector, or their securities, have been exposed to sale by virtue of any writ of venditioni exponas to satisfy a judgment obtained by the commonwealth, and could not be sold for want of buyers, and return hath been made to that effect, in either of the above cases it shall and may be lawful for the executive, and they are hereby authorised and required, to direct the officer to whom any subsequent process in either of the above cases ought to issue, provided such property cannot be sold agreeable to the directions of such subsequent process, to cause such property to be removed to such place in any adjacent county as the executive may direct, and there to be sold for money or government securities on such terms and in such proportions as they shall judge expedient, provided that if such property will not sell for three fourths of its value in the judgment of the valuers of the county where the sale shall be made, the sheriff or other officer shall sell the same on three months credit, and shall take bonds in the same manner, and the like proceedings shall be had thereon, as is herein before directed in cases of bonds taken on the sale of lands and tenements sold by virtue of this act. | Power of executive to direct removal of property to another county. |
| IX. In every case where any writ of fieri facias or venditioni exponas issued [issues] against the estate of a sheriff on behalf of the commonwealth, if by law the same ought to be directed to a sheriff, such writ or writs shall be executed by the high sheriff. In like manner | Power of executive to direct removal of property to another county. |
| where any writ of fieri facias or venditioni exponas shall hereafter issue at the instance of the commonwealth against the estate of any sheriff, coroner, or other public collector, or their securities, and the goods and chattels of such debtor cannot be sold for want of buyers, the executive shall direct the property to be removed and sold as above directed in the cases of such sheriffs, coroners, public collectors, and securities, whose property has not been sold for want of buyers. | |
| X. It shall be the duty of the solicitor general forthwith to acquaint the executive when their interposition is, or hereafter may become, necessary to the carrying this act into effect. | Duty of solicitor to inform executive. |
| XI. And whereas there is reason to suspect fraudulent practices have prevailed in the sale of estates of public debtors, to prevent such practices in future, Be it enacted, that the solicitor general, immediately on the return of any process which he shall suspect was fraudulently executed, shall give notice thereof to the executive, whose duty it shall be to direct the attorney of the commonwealth for such county to file an information thereupon, in which like proceedings shall be had as in other cases of information, and if it shall appear that such sale was fraudulently made, the property of any thing thus fraudulently sold shall not be changed, but remain subject to the demand of the commonwealth; and the officer who executed such process, if he be concerned in such fraud, shall ever after be rendered incapable of being appointed to any office of honor or profit. | Fraudulent practices how detected. |
| XII. And whereas sheriffs and other public collectors in some instances have proceeded to collect the public revenue without having entered in to bond with security for the faithful performance of that duty, which cannot be recovered from such collectors except by the tedious process of law: For remedy whereof, Be it enacted, That every sheriff or other public collector who may have attempted the collection of any of the different species of taxes in any county or corporation in this state, shall be liable to a judgment and execution for the same sum, and in the same summary way as if such sheriff or other public collector had actually given security agreeable to law. | Remedy against sheriffs, collecting revenue, without security. |
| XIII. In all executions founded upon judgments heretofore obtained, where it may be necessary to remove | Expences of removing property |
| any property by virtue of this act, the extra expences attending such process, shall be discharged by the commonwealth, but in all executions upon judgments hereafter to be obtained such additional expences shall be paid by the owner of the property, and taxed in the costs of the prosecution. | how defrayed. | |
| XIV. And be it further enacted, That no person whatsoever shall be capable to serve or execute the office of under sheriff or deputy sheriff for any longer time than two years, in any period of four years, unless he shall produce to the court of his county satisfactory proof of his having collected and accounted for the taxes assigned to him by his former principal. Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent any under sheriff now in office from serving the time that his principal shall be in office. | How long & on what conditions deputy sheriff may serve. | |
| XV. The clerks of the respective county and corporation courts within this commonwealth shall on or before the first day of July transmit to the solicitor general a list of the several fines which may have been imposed by their respective courts since the first day of January in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty two; and if no fine shall have been imposed by any of the courts within the said period, the clerk's shall so certify. Every clerk failing to perform the aforesaid duty shall forfeit and pay fifty pounds, to be recovered by the solicitor on motion in the general court, and applied to the use of the commonwealth, Provided, ten days previous notice be given in writing of every such motion. | Clerks, when to transmit lists of fines. | |
 CHAP. XLI. | ||
| ||
| [Passed the 7th of January, 1788.] | ||
| I. WHEREAS it is just and expedient to repeal so much of every act of assembly as authorises the auditor | Certificates for militia services, performed |
| of public accounts to issue certificates for militia service performed during the late war; Be it therefore enacted, That so much of all and every act of assembly, heretofore passed, as authorises the auditor of public accounts to issue certificates for militia service performed during the last war, shall be and the same is hereby repealed. | during the late war, no longer to be issued. | |
| CHAP. XLII. | ||
| ||
| [Passed the 7th of January, 1788.] | ||
| I. WHEREAS the manner of selling land, as heretofore practised by the various sheriffs and collectors, for the payment of the public taxes due thereon, has in many instances, produced great oppression; for remedy whereof, in future, Be it enacted, That all sales of land for payment of taxes otherwise shall be void. | Mode of selling lands for payment of taxes, prescribed. | |
| II. No sale shall be made of land for payment of taxes if other property sufficient belonging to the person chargeable with the land tax can be found in the county. | ||
| III. Before any sale shall take place of any land for payment of taxes, notice thereof shall be given at least eight weeks in the gazette of the public printer, and shall be advertised at the court-house of the county where the land lies on the first day of two several courts previous to such sale, and proclamation shall also be made thereof at the door of the court-house, on the said days, between the hours of twelve and four. | ||
| IV. All sales of land so made shall be conducted by the high sheriff, where the sheriff has entered into bond for the collection of the taxes. And if any other person hath been or shall be appointed by the court to collect the taxes, the sales of land made to discharge |
| the taxes shall be conducted by the said collector and not by a deputy. | |
| V. The said high sheriff or collector of taxes shall give to the commissioner of the land tax in his county at least thirty days notice previous to any sale of land as aforesaid, and the said commissioner shall attend the said sale for which he shall be allowed six shillings, to be paid by the person chargeable with such land tax: And if the land so offered for sale will not yield a price in the opinion of the said commissioner, equal to one half of the value thereof, taking for his guide, in estimating the value, the price at which such land is charged by the act for equalizing the land tax, and having regard to the quality of the particular part of the land so offered for sale, then the said commissioner shall bid for and purchase the said land on account of the public, and shall give to the sheriff or collector a certificate thereof, expressing therein the amount of taxes for which such land hath been sold, which certificate being by the said sheriff or collector paid to the treasurer, he shall have credit for the same in part of the land tax; and the person who was chargeable originally with the said land tax, may discharge the same and be entitled to all the estate he held in such land in as full and ample a manner as if the said sale had never been made: Provided payment be made of the said taxes, agreeable to the certificate of the commissioner, into the public treasury at any time within six months after such certificate shall be delivered to the treasurer together with twenty five per centum damages on the amount thereof; or if payment be made at any time, not less than six months nor more than two years thereafter, the same may be discharged by payment of double the amount of the said certificate: But provided payment shall not be made thereof within two years from the time that such certificate shall be paid to the treasurer, then and in that case the governor shall appoint such person or persons, as may to him with advice of council seem proper, to sell the said land and convey the same to the purchaser thereof, and to pay the amount of the debt due to the public, with the damages and expences of sale in the first instance from the money arising from the sale thereof, and to pay the surplus, if any, to the person who may have been proprietor of the land at the time the commissioner of the |
| taxes may become purchaser thereof on public account, or to the legal representative or representatives of such proprietor. | |
| VI. All sales of land for taxes, where the sheriff or collector, or any deputy sheriff or collector, or any person in trust for them or either of them, or in partnership with them or either of them, is the last bidder for such land, shall be considered as held in trust for the payment of the taxes for which such land is offered for sale, and may be redeemed by the proprietor thereof by payment of the taxes due thereon, and the charges of sale, with interest thereon at the rate of six per centum per annum, and ten per centum damages. | |
| VII. Provided always that nothing herein contained shall be construed to authorise any commissioner to purchase any land on account of the public to a greater amount than the sum due to the public for the taxes thereof. | |
| VIII. In all cases of landlord and tenant, wherein the tenant shall covenant for the payment of the taxes by law imposed upon the land by him tenanted, the property of every such tenant thereon being shall be liable to the payment thereof; and to ascertain the same, the clerks of the several county courts shall, annually, before the first day of April, certify to the commissioners of the tax in his county an abstract of all deeds or leases for the tenancy of lands lying therein which shall have been recorded within twelve months last preceding, and the said commisssioners shall enter the same in their return of taxable property for the guidance of the sheriff or collector. | |
| IX. So much of every act or acts of assembly as comes within the purview of this act shall be, and the same is hereby repealed. | |
| X. And be it further enacted, That where any deed or conveyance for land lying within the district of Kentucky, hath been, or shall be recorded in the general court of this commonwealth, and the legal tax thereon shall have been paid, and the same deed or conveyance shall be transmitted with a certificate thereof to be recorded also in the said district, such deed or conveyance shall be admitted to record in any of the courts thereof, wherein the same ought by law to be recorded, without payment of any further tax thereon. |
| CHAP. XLIII. | ||
| ||
| [Passed the 21st of November, 1787.] | ||
| I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That the courts of the several counties within this commonwealth are hereby empowered and required, upon application, to exempt from payment of county levies and poor rates, all such persons as from age or infirmities are, or may hereafter be entitled to an exemption from the payment of public taxes; and that all those persons who have been exempted heretofore from the payment of public taxes to the said levies and poor rates. | County courts may exempt from payment of levies & poor rates. | |
| CHAP. XLIV. | ||
| ||
| [Passed the 3d of January, 1788.] | ||
| I. WHEREAS no certain adequate mode is fixed by law for the regular payment of the expences attending the examination and trial of criminals in the county courts, and it is necessary that the same should be provided for and regularly paid by the public; Be it further enacted by the General Assembly, That the several county and corporation courts within this commonwealth, having jurisdiction in such examinations and trials, shall, annually in the month of September or October, cause to be certified to the auditor of public | Criminal charges in county courts how certified and paid. |
| accounts all claims for expences accruing after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, from the examination and trial of criminals, for guards and the maintenance to criminals in their respective counties and corporations, for conveying them to the public jail for further trial, and for imprisonments, for misdemeanor or breach of the peace, and all other charges properly chargeable to the public, together with the vouchers on which such claims have been allowed, and the auditor is hereby authorised and required to liquidate and adjust the said claims, and after having converted such of them as are in tobacco (the price whereof is not otherwise settled by law) into money, at the rate of twelve shillings and six pence per hundred, to grant warrants on the treasury to the respective claimants for the amount of their claims; which warrants so issued shall be receivable in payment of taxes in like manner as those granted for expences attending criminal prosecutions in the general court. | |
| II. And be it further enacted, That the accounts of all such charges as have been heretofore levied or assessed, or which may be assessed in the levy to the first day of January one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, by any county court on their respective counties and charged to the public shall be certified and transmitted by the clerks of such counties to the auditor of public accounts, who is hereby authorised and directed to liquidate and adjust the said accounts, and after having converted such of them as are in tobacco (the price whereof is not otherwise settled by law) into money, at the aforesaid rate of twelve shillings and six pence per hundred, to grant certificates to the respective counties for the amount of their claims, the payment of which certificates shall hereafter be provided for in such manner as the general assembly shall direct. | |
| III. So much of all and every act and acts as comes within the purview of this act shall be, and the same is hereby repealed. |
| CHAP. XLV. | ||
| ||
| [Passed the 5th of January, 1788.] | ||
| I. WHEREAS so much of the laws of revenue as direct the application of one tenth of the money arising from the tax on lands and lots to the redemption of the money funded agreeable to the recommendation of congress of the eighteenth of March one thousand seven hundred and eighty, have been found unequal in their operation: Be it therefore enacted, That so much of any act or acts of assembly as permits the payment of any part of the taxes on lands and lots in the said paper money, shall be, and the same is hereby repealed: | Provision for redemption of certain paper money. | |
| II And that more effectual provision may be made for the redemption of so much of the said money as hath been heretofore actually emitted, the treasurer is hereby directed and required to set apart one tenth of all the specie paid into the treasury in discharge of the taxes on lands and unimproved lots subject to the direction of the general assembly hereafter, in such manner as will conduce most to the public interest, and a compliance with the public engagements for the redemption of the said money: Provided always, That nothing herein contained shall prevent the payment, into the treasury, of any of the said paper money, actually received by any sheriff or collector of public taxes, agreeable to the laws heretofore permitting the payment of one tenth of the tax on lands and unimproved lots, in the said money; but every sheriff or collector of public taxes, on payment of such proportion thereof, as hath been actually received agreeable to law, before the passing of this act, shall have credit for the same accordingly. |
| CHAP. XLVI. | ||
| ||
| [Passed December the 20th, 1787.] | ||
| I. WHEREAS the act of assembly passed in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty four, intituled, "An act to revive and amend in part an act for giving further time to enter certificates for settlement rights, and for locating warrants upon pre-emption rights, and for other purposes," which was continued by several subsequent acts, will expire on the last day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and it is expedient that the same should be further continued in part: Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That the said recited act shall be continued in part until the thirty first day of December one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight; within which time the register of the land office or his deputy shall receive all plats and certificates of survey, although not returned within the time heretofore limited by law, and such lands shall not be considered as forfeited or liable to forfeiture on that account. | Further time allowed for entering certificates for settlement rights and to locating pre-emption warrants. | |
| II. And whereas the time allowed by law for entering certificates for settlement rights, will expire on the last day of December one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and it is judged expedient to continue the same, Be it therefore enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the surveyors of this commonwealth within their respective counties at any time before the said thirty-first day of December in the year aforesaid to receive and enter all such certificates or the attested copies of such as shall be lost, and to proceed to survey the same as the law directs: Provided, such attestation be made by the commissioners who granted the same, |
| or by the clerk of the superior court of the district of Kentuckey, or the register of the land office. | |
| III. And be it farther enacted, That any person who hath obtained, or shall obtain a pre-emption warrant before the last day of December in the present year, shall be allowed until the last day of June one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight to enter the same with the surveyor of the county in which the land may lie; and all warrants so obtained, with the entry and survey thereupon, shall be good and valid in law, any act or acts to the contrary notwithstanding. | |
| CHAP. XLVII. An act concerning certain duties on tobacco [Passed the 1st of December, 1787.] | |
| I. WHEREAS by an act passed at the last session of assembly, intituled, "An act to raise a supply of money for the United States in congress assembled," it was amongst other things enacted, that from and after the tenth day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven, an additional duty of six shillings per hogshead on every hogshead of tobacco passed at and shipped from any public ware-house within this commonwealth should be paid to the inspectors, and it has been represented to this present general assembly that many inspectors received the said additional duty upon tobacco which had been inspected before the said tenth day of January one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, which was contrary to the intent of the said act and it is reasonable that the money so improperly collected should be refunded, Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That the auditor of public accounts upon an affidavit of any inspector or inspectors, or other satisfactory proof being produced to him that any person hath paid the said additional duty of six shillings per hogshead upon tobacco inspected before the said tenth day of January, one thousand | Acts concerning duties on tobacco explained and amended. |
| seven hundred and eighty seven, shall grant to such person a warrant for the full amount of the duty so paid by him; which warrant shall be paid by the treasurer out of the funds arising from the duties on tobacco. Provided nevertheless, that where any inspectors have not paid the said additional duty into the treasury the same shall not be paid by the public, but the person to whom it shall appear to be due, shall and may recover the said duty of any such inspector or inspectors, by motion, in any court of record withing this commonwealth, upon giving ten days previous notice thereof, together with the costs of such motion. | |
| II. And be it further enacted, That if any inspector or inspectors shall grant a certificate or affidavit to any person or persons of his or their having paid such additional duty, where the same shall not actually have been paid, or for a greater sum than any such person or persons shall have paid, such inspector or inspectors shall, upon information and proof thereof being made to the executive be displaced by them, and shall moreover forfeit and pay the sum of fifty pounds, to be recovered by action of debtor information in any court of record, one half of which shall be applied to the use of the informer, and the other half to the use of the commonwealth. | |
| III. And whereas it is represented that many persons have twice paid the duties on the same hogshead of tobacco, as well at Rivanna and Lynch's inspection, at the ware-houses below receiving such tobacco, which is contrary to law, Be it therefore enacted, That upon a similar proof of such duty being twice paid on the same hogshead of tobacco, as is herein before directed, the same shall be repaid to the person or persons, under the like restrictions as are prescribed with respect to the said six shillings per hogshead. | |
| IV. And whereas the act, intituled, "An act to appoint commissioners to state and settle the losses sustained by the burning the ware-houses at Rockey Ridge," imposing a tax of three shillings per hogshead on tobacco, hath been misunderstood by many of the inspectors, and the said tax collected from the shippers of tobacco from the first day of May to the first day of October, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, contrary to the intent and meaning of the said act; Be it therefore enacted, That all persons having had so |
| improperly collected from them the said three shillings, shall be entitled to recover the same in the manner and under the same restrictions as are herein prescribed for persons who have been illegally charged with the six shillings on tobacco inspected before the tenth day of January last, any thing in any act to the contrary notwithstanding. | |
| CHAP. XLVIII. An act to amend the acts concerning the poor. [Passed the 31st of December 1787.] | |
| I. WHEREAS the laws heretofore made for providing for the poor have in some instances proved difficult and burthensome in their execution, and in others inadequate to the purpose: For remedy thereof, Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That there shall not in future be more than four districts for electing overseers of the poor in any one county; and that in the several counties wherein there are at present more than four such districts, the courts of such counties respectively shall be, and they are hereby empowered and required at some one of their respective courts in the months of February, March, or April next, to cause their respective counties to be laid off into convenient districts not exceeding four, and shall order new elections to be made of overseers of the poor in such districts in the manner prescribed by the act, intituled, "An act to provide for the poor of the several counties within this commonwealth," which overseers of the poor so to be elected shall serve for and during the same term for which the former overseers of the poor in such counties had respectively been elected. | Districts, for electing overseers of the poor, limited. |
| II. And be it further enacted, That the overseers of the poor in every county, although in different districts, shall meet annually at some convenient place, to be appointed by a majority of them, on the first Monday in September, if fair, if not the next fair day. | Meeting of overseers. |
| The overseers of the poor of the different districts (if there be more than one in the county) shall bring with them to such annual meeting a distinct state of the number, names and situation of the poor, and an account of their expenditures in their respective districts, and a majority of the overseers of the poor in the county so meeting, and there being in such majority at least one overseer of the poor from each district shall chuse a president, and shall be empowered to regulate the necessary provisions to be made for all the poor of the county (exclusive of the poor of any corporate town) for the succeeding year, as well as to adjust and settle the charges of supporting and maintaining the poor the preceding year, and to levy and assess upon all such taxables of their county as are subject of county levies, except the inhabitants of any corporate town, and settle the amount of the poor rate upon each such taxable in the same manner as the vestries used formerly to ascertain and assess the parish levy, either in tobacco or money at a certain price at the option of the payer: for which purpose the clerk of the county shall furnish the said overseers to the poor with a certified copy of the list of all such taxables in the county exclusive of those in any corporate town within the same, if any such there be. | Their duties. |
| III. And the said overseers of the poor shall also be, and they are hereby empowered and required, at their annual meeting to appoint a collector of such county poor rate, and to take from him bond with sufficient security, in a sum double the amount of the sum to be collected by him, payable to their president for the use of the said overseers of the poor, to be applied towards lessening the county poor-rate, and conditioned for the faithful and diligent collection of the said poor rate, and the payment to the several persons respectively entitled thereto of the sums of tobacco or money due to them according to the entries and accounts of the said overseers of the poor (a copy of which shall be delivered to such collector) and also for settling with the said overseers of the poor, or their successors, at their next annual meeting, a just and true account of all his receipts and disbursements with proper vouchers, and paying whatsoever balance shall, upon such settlement, appear to be in his hands; such collector shall be allowed the same commissions for receiving the said | Collector of poor rates how appointed, his power and duty. |
| poor rate, as the sheriff is by law allowed for receiving county levies, shall be subject to the same rules and regulations, and shall have the same power of distress in case of non-payment of any person chargeable therewith, at the time the county levies are by law distrainable. | |
| IV. It shall be lawful for such collector to appoint one or more deputies to assist him in the collection of the poor rate, for whose conduct he shall be answerable, which deputies shall have the same powers as the collector himself, and if such collector shall refuse or neglect to settle his account with the overseers of the poor, as herein before directed, or shall fail or refuse to pay them any money or tobacco which shall be in his hands, or in the hands of any of his deputies, or shall delay or refuse to pay off the several claims to the persons respectively entitled thereto, it may and shall be lawful for the court of he county wherein such collector was appointed, upon the motion of the overseers of the poor, or of any of the persons having legal claims, to grant judgment against such collector and his securities for the sums of money or tobacco respectively due to the said overseers of the poor, or to such legal claimants with costs: Provided, such collector and his securities have ten days previous notice of such motion. And such collector shall have the same remedy and mode of recovery against his deputies, or either of them, and their securities respectively, for any sums of money or tobacco, which, by virtue of this act such collector may be subjected to the payment of, on account of the transactions of any of his deputies. | Deputy collectors. Liabilities. |
| V. The overseers of the poor at their annual meeting, shall be and they are hereby empowered to settle the accounts of the former overseers and to receive from them any sums of money or tobacco which shall be in their hands, and to call upon the collector or collectors heretofore appointed by any vestry for a settlement of their accounts, and payment of any balances which shall be in their hands, and on failure of such payment they shall have the same mode of recovery, as is by this act directed for the recovery of money or tobacco in the hands of a collector of their own appointment. | Overseers to settle with their predecessors. |
| VI. The said overseers of the poor shall also be and they are hereby empowered to levy, in the manner before | Power to pay parish debts. |
| directed, such sums of money or tobacco as shall be necessary to pay any arrears which may be due and unpaid by any parish or district to individuals. −− And that where several counties shall compose one parish only, it shall be lawful for the overseers of the poor of each county to recover of the collector or wardens their proportion of any tobacco or money in their hands. | |
| VII. All the proceedings and accounts of the overseers of the poor shall be regularly entered in a book, and shall be signed by the members present at each annual meeting, and for this purpose the said overseers of the poor of each county, or a majority of them, shall be and are hereby empowered to appoint a clerk, and at any time upon his misbehaviour or neglect of duty to remove him and appoint another in his stead, and to make such clerk an allowance, not exceed the sum of five pounds annually, for his services. | Proceedings, how entered. |
| VIII. At the said annual meeting each of the overseers of the poor in the county who are present shall have a vote, and if upon any such vote they be equally divided, the question shall be decided in favor of that side on which the president shall have voted. | Rules, in voting. |
| IX. If on the first day of the before mentioned annual meeting there shall not appear a sufficient majority of the overseers of the poor for the county to proceed to business, any one or more of such as shall have attended, shall be and are hereby empowered to adjourn, from, day to day, until such a majority shall meet, who may afterwards adjourn from day to day until their business shall be finished. | Power of adjournment. |
| X. And be it further enacted, That the overseers of the poor shall, if they demand the same, be allowed the sum of six shillings each, to be charged in their account of other expenditures, for every day they shall attend the before mentioned annual meeting, and shall be subject to a penalty of the like sum for every day each of them respectively shall fail to attend the same, to be computed in both cases from the first day of such annual meeting during the continuance thereof, and their clerk shall in like manner be subject to the penalty of twelve shillings for every day he shall fail to attend such annual meeting, unless such overseers of the poor, or their clerk, respectively, shall be prevented from attendance | Allowance to overseers. |
| by sickness or other unavoidable accidents; to be recovered with costs by warrant before any justice of the peace for the county. | |
| XI. And any person being duly elected who shall refuse or neglect to serve as an overseer of the poor in the county of which he is an inhabitant unless disqualified by age or other infirmity (such disqualification to be judged of by the county court) shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten pounds to be recovered with costs by action of debt or information in any court of record within the commonwealth: Provided that no person shall be compelled to serve more than three years nor be subject to the penalty for refuse more than once in any term of nine years. | Penalty for refusing to serve. |
| XII. Upon the death, refusal, removal or disability of any overseer or overseers of the poor some other person or persons shall be elected in the stead of the person or persons so dying, refusing, removing, or disabled, to serve for the same time, such person or persons should otherwise have remained in office. | Vacancies, how supplied. |
| XIII. And be it further enacted, That the overseers of the poor, or any one of them, shall be and are hereby empowered upon discovering any vagrant or vagrants within their respective districts to make information thereof to any justice of the peace for the county, and to require a warrant for apprehending such vagrant or vagrants to be brought before him or some other justice of the peace for the county; and if upon due examination it shall appear to such justice that such person or persons are within the true description of a vagrant as herein after mentioned, such justice shall, by warrant under his hand, order such vagrant or vagrants to be delivered to some one of the overseers of the poor in the district, in which such vagrant or vagrants shall have been apprehended, to be employed in labor for any term no exceeding three months, and by the said overseer of the poor hired out for the best wages that can be procured to be applied to the use of the poor. And if any such vagrant or vagrants shall, using such term of service, run away from the person so employing or hiring him or them, he or they shall be dealt with in the same manner as other run away servants. | Vagrants, how dealt with. |
| XIV. And be it further enacted, That the corporation courts of the several corporate towns within this | Power of corporations to provide for poor. |
| commonwealth, shall be and they are hereby respectively empowered and required to provide for and maintain the poor within the limits of their respective towns, separately and distinctly from the poor of the county, and any two magistrates of any such corporation court shall be and are hereby empowered by warrant under their hands, to cause to be removed any poor person to the last place of his or her legal residence, who hath not been resident within of such town for one year last past before such removal. And in like manner the overseers of the poor in the county, shall be and they are hereby empowered by warrant, under the hands of any two of them, to cause to be removed into any corporate town any poor person whose residence shall have been within the limits of such town for one year last past before such removal, except in both cases such poor persons only as have been lodged in any poor house at any time during the last two years, who shall be respectively returned to and maintained by the county or the town according to their former respective usual residence in either. The said corporation courts shall be and they are hereby respectively empowered, whenever they shall judge it necessary to provide or build a poor house and work house for the reception of their poor, and for the reformation of vagrants, and to employ a proper person or persons as stewards or managers thereof, subject to the direction and controul of such corporation court; and the said corporation courts shall be and they are hereby respectively empowered and required to levy and assess, annually, upon their respective towns, either by way of poll tax upon the inhabitants, or by a tax upon houses or other property within the limits of the town, as they shall judge best, all charges incurred for the support and maintenance of their poor, and also all the charges which may be incurred in providing or building a poor house and work house, and in the government and management of the same. | |
| XV. And be it further enacted, That the inhabitants of any such corporate town, not having a freehold estate in the county without the limits of the town, shall be disabled from voting in any election of the overseers of the poor in the respective counties, nor shall any inhabitant of any such corporate town be capable of serving as an overseer of the poor in any county. | Right of voting. |
| XVI. And be it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for any magistrate of any such corporation-court, upon discovering any vagrant or vagrants within the limits of the town, to issue his warrant for apprehending such vagrant or vagrants for examination, and if, upon such examination before two magistrates of the corporation court, it shall appear that the person or persons so apprehended are within the true description of a vagrant, as herein after mentioned, the said two magistrates shall be, and they are hereby empowered by warrant under their hands to commit such vagrant or vagrants to the work-house, there to be employed in labour for any term not exceeding three months, and if there be no work house in such town, the said two magistrates may, and they are hereby empowered to proceed with such vagrant or vagrants, in the same manner as the overseers of the poor in the counties are herein before directed to proceed, upon any vagrant or vagrants being delivered to them. | Removal of vagrants. |
| XVII. And be it further enacted, That any able bodied man, who not having wherewithall to maintain himself shall be found loitering, and shall have a wife or children without means for their subsistance, whereby they may become burthensome to their county or town, and any able bodied man without a wife or children, who, not having wherewithall to maintain himself, shall wander abroad, or be found loitering without betaking himself to some honest employment, or shall go about begging, or shall not pay his legal taxes, shall be deemed and treated as a vagrant. | Who deemed vagrants. |
| XVIII. All and every keeper or keepers, exhibiter or exhibiters, of either of the gaming-tables commonly called A. B. C. or E. O. tables, or of a Pharoah bank, or of any other gaming-table or bank of the same, or the like kind, under any denomination whatever, shall be deemed and treated as vagrants. And moreover it shall and may be lawful for any justice of the peace, or magistrate of any corporation-court, by warrant under his hand to order any such gaming-table to be seized, and publicly burnt or destroyed. | Keepers of A. B. C. or E. O. tables, or Pharoah bank, treated as vagrants. |
| XIX. All the forfeitures and penalties inflicted by this act, shall be, one half to the informer, and the other half to the use of the overseers of the poor for the county, to be by them applied towards the support and maintenance of such poor. |
| XX. And be it further enacted, That the clause respecting vagrants or idle persons not having wherewithall to maintain themselves in the act, intituled "An act concerning seamen," and so much of all the acts concerning the poor as is contrary to this act shall be, and is hereby repealed. | ||
| CHAP. XLIX. | ||
| ||
| [Passed December 24th, 1787.] | ||
| I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That the warehouses for the reception and inspection of tobacco shall be and the same are hereby established on the lands of Walter Beall, on Kentucky river near Harrod's landing in the county of Mercer, to be called and known by the name of Harrod's landing; on the lands of James Hogan, at the mouth of Hickman's creek, on the north side of Kentucky river in the county of Fayette, to be called and known by the name of Hogan's; on the lands of Walter Beall, at the mouth of Beachfork on Salt river in the county of Nelson, to be called and known by the name of Beall's; on the lands of general Charles Scott, near the mouth of Craig's creek on Kentucky river in the county of Fayette, to be called and known by the name of Scott's; in the town of Boonsborough on Kentucky river in the county of Madison, to be called and known by the name of Boon's; on the lands of John Collier on the Kentucky river, in the county of Madison, to be called and known by the name of Collier's; on the lands of John May and Simon Canton on the lower side of Limestone creek in the county of Bourbon, to be called and known by the name of Limestone; on the lands of William Thornton Alexander, in the town of Alexandria, to be called and known by the name of Thornton's; | New inspections of tobacco established and others revived. |
| and on the lands of Samuel Brown, on the south side of Nottoway river, in the county of Southampton, to be called and known by the name of Nottoway, and the proprietors of the said lands shall build the said warehouses at their own expence. There shall be allowed and paid annually to each of the inspectors at Harrod's landing warehouse, the sum of twenty-five pounds: to each of the inspectors at Hogan's warehouse, the sum of twenty-five pounds; to each of the inspectors at Beall's warehouse, the sum of twenty five pounds; to each of the inspectors at Boon's warehouse and Collier's warehouse, under one inspection the sum of twenty five pounds; to each of the inspector's at Scott's warehouse, the sum of twenty five pounds; to each of the inspectors of Limestone warehouse, the sum of twenty five pounds; to each of the inspectors at Thornton's warehouse, the sum of fifty pounds; are to each of the inspectors at Nottoway warehouse, the sum of twenty pounds for their salaries. Provided always and be it further enacted, That if the quantity of tobacco inspected at any of the said warehouses hereby established at any of the said warehouses hereby established or revived shall not be sufficient to pay the usual charges and inspectors salaries, the deficiency shall not be paid by the public. | |
| II. And be it further enacted, That the inspection of tobacco at Meriwether's warehouses in the town of Newcastle; at Shepherd's in the county of King and queen; at Boyd's Hole, and Machodack on Potowmack; at Howler's, at Hampton, Portsmouth, Hood's, Rockett's, Rivanna, Suffolk, Urbanna, York, South Quay, Davis's and Lowry's, Yeocomico and Kinsale, Deacon's Neck, Littlepage's, Brick-House, College Landing, and at Poropotank, shall be, and the same is hereby revived and established, under the like rules, regulations, and allowance for inspectors salaries, as if the same had not been discontinued. Provided, That the warehouses hereby directed to be established on the lands of William Thornton Alexander, in the town of Alexandria, shall be built of stone or brick, and covered with slate or tile, with gates of iron. And that no tobacco shall be received for inspection at the said warehouses, nor any inspectors appointed for the same, until the court of Fairfax county shall be of opinion, and enter the same of record that the said warehouses are built according to the directions of this act. |
| III. And whereas it hath been represented to the general assembly, that the proprietor of the land whereon Byrd's warehouses lately stood, is willing to rebuilt the same at his own expence, in such manner as will best secure the tobacco lodged therein from the danger of fire: Be it therefore enacted, That so soon as the proprietor of the said land shall, at his own expence rebuild the said warehouses of brick, with a cover of slate or tile, and make the gates of iron, that the inspection of tobacco at the said warehouses, shall thenceforth be revived and established in like manner as if they had not been burnt or discontinued; Provided always, That no tobacco shall be received for inspection at the said warehouses until the court of Henrico county shall be of opinion, and enter the same of record, that the proprietor hath built the said houses according to the directions of this act. | |
| IV. And be it further enacted, that the inspectors at Shockoe and Rockett's warehouses, are hereby authorised to call for the assistance of the third inspector, from time to time, when the quantity of tobacco shall from time to time, when the quantity of tobacco shall be so great that they cannot inspect it with sufficient dispatch; who shall be paid for the time he shall so act, in like manner as a principal inspector. | |
| V. And be it further enacted, that there shall be allowed and paid to each of the inspectors at Rivanna and Lynch's warehouses, the additional sum of ten pounds; and to each of the inspectors at Hampton, the additional sum of five pounds. Provided always, that if the quantity of tobacco inspected at the said warehouses shall not be sufficient to defray the expence of the said additional allowances, the same shall not be paid by the public. | |
| VI. And be it further enacted, That so soon as Byrd's warehouses shall be rebuilt and fit for the reception of tobacco, the persons who were commissioned inspectors thereat when the former warehouses were burnt, shall be reinstated in their offices as inspectors, and from thenceforth their respective salaries shall commence and be receivable. | |
| VII. Every person who now is or hereafter may be an inspector, shall be incapable of acting as a justice of the peace or sheriff, during his continuance in the office of inspector. |
| Pages 529-558
| Pages 583-602
|