Volume Map
|  Pages 22-46
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| Volume Map
| Pages 22-46
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| THE Statutes at Large; BEING A COLLECTION OF ALL THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA FROM THE FIRST SESSION OF THE LEGISLATURE, IN THE YEAR 1619.  PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO AN ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF VIRGINIA, PASSED ON THE FIFTH DAY OF FEBRUARY, ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND EIGHT. VOLUME XIII. BY WILLIAM WALLER HENING.
PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED FOR THE EDITOR, BY THOMAS DESILVER, No. 253, MARKET STREET. William Brown, Printer. 1823. |
|
| PREFACE TO THE Thirteenth Volume of the Statutes at Large.
| |
| WITH this volume, the editor's engagements, with the public, terminate. His original stipulation was to publish the STATUES AT LARGE, prior* to the year 1792, the date of the former Revised Code. Since that period the Revised Code of 1819 has been published; and the difficulty of procuring many of the sessions acts between 1792 and 1819, may render it expedient to bring down the Statutes at Large to a later period. | |
| It was the intention of the editor, in the progress of his work, to have procured from England some acts of a private and local nature, the titles of which had alone been preserved in this country, and to have published them, in an appendix to the last volume, together with a general digested index to the whole work. These, with other additions contemplated, would certainly have been made, had not the legislature at the last session,† so limited the number of volumes, and added to the matter which they were to contain, by including the sessions acts to the end of 1792, instead of prior to that date, as to swell the 12th volume to an unreasonable size, and preclude the admission of these improvements which the editor was sincerely desirous to introduce. | |
| WILLIAM WALLER HENING. | |
| Richmond, September 4, 1823. | |
|
| List of Governors of Virginia, during the period comprised in this volume, |
|
| BEVERLEY RANDOLPH, Esq. who was elected governor in December 1788, continued until December 1791, when HENRY LEE, Esq. was elected. | Beverley Randolph, Esq. Henry Lee, Esq. |
| AT A GENERAL ASSEMBLY, | |||
|
Beverley Randolph, Esq. Governor. | ||
| CHAP. I. An act reducing the reward to apprehenders of horse-stealers. (Passed the 30th of October, 1789.) | |||
| SECT. 1. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That so much of an act intituled "An act for preventing losses from drivers passing with horses and cattle through this Colony, and for laying a duty on horses imported, and the more effectual preventing horse-stealing," as gives a reward to any person who shall apprehend or take a horse-stealer; and also the whole of the act, intituled "An act to increase the reward for apprehending horse-stealers, and for other purposes therein mentioned," shall be and are hereby repealed. | Former acts giving rewards to apprehenders of horse-stealers repealed. | ||
| SECT. 2. And whosoever shall obtain from any District Court, a certificate, under the act, intituled "An act to encourage the apprehending of horse-stealers," shall receive the reward of five pounds and no more. | Reward to apprehenders of horse-stealer. |
| CHAP. II. | ||
| ||
| (Passed the 12th of November, 1789.) | ||
| BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That the act, intituled "An act authorising the treasurer to receive specie into the public treasury by weight," which will expire at the end of the present session, shall continue and be in force, from and after the expiration thereof for three years, and from thence, until the end of the next session of Assembly. | Act authorising Treasurer to receive specie by weight, continued. | |
| CHAP. III. | ||
| ||
| (Passed the 12th of November, 1789.) | ||
| SECT. 1. WHEREAS it hath been represented to the present General Assembly, that the certificates which have been issued by the commissioners appointed under the acts of Assembly, "For appointing commissioners to liquidate and settle the expences incurred in two expeditions, carried on from the Kentuckey district, against the neighbouring Indians, and for other purposes," are payable in discharge of the tax on law process and alienations, and also in discharge of the tax on tobacco accruing within the district of Kentuckey: for prevention whereof in future; | Preamble. | |
| SECT. 2. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That from and after the passing of this act, the tax on law process and alienations, and also the tax on tobacco receivable within the district of Kentuckey, shall be paid and accounted for in specie only; any law to the contrary notwithstanding. | Taxes on law process, alienations and tobacco in Kentuckey to be paid in specie only. |
| CHAP. IV. | ||
| ||
| (Passed the 12th of November, 1789.) | ||
| SECT. 1. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That it shall be the duty of the keeper of the jail in every district, county or corporation within this Commonwealth, to receive into his custody any prisoner or prisoners, who may be from time to time committed to his charge, under the authority of the United States, and to safe keep every such prisoner or prisoners according to the warrant or precept of commitment, until he shall be discharged by the due course of the laws of the United States. | Jailors to receive prisoners committed under the authority of the United States. | |
| SECT. 2. And be it further enacted, That the keeper of every jail aforesaid, shall be subject to the same pains and penalties for any neglect or failure of duty herein, as he would be subject to, by the laws of this Commonwealth, for a like neglect or failure, in the case of a prisoner committed under the authority of the said laws. | Penalties for neglect of duty. | |
| SECT. 3. Provided always, That the United States do pay or cause to be paid for the use and keeping of such jails, at the rate of fifty cents per month, for every prisoner, that shall under their authority be committed thereto, during the time such prisoner shall be therein confined, and moreover, do support such of the said prisoners, as shall be committed for offences. | United States to pay for the use of the jails, and to support prisoners committed for offences. | |
| CHAP. V. | ||
| ||
| (Passed the 13th of November, 1789.) | ||
| SECT. 1. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That it shall and may be lawful for the governor of this Commonwealth, and he is hereby fully authorised, for and in behalf of this Commonwealth, by proper deeds and instruments | Governor to convey land at Cape Henry to United States. |
| in writing, under his hand and the seal of this Commonwealth, to convey, transfer, assign and make over unto the United States in Congress assembled, for the use of the said United States, all interest in, and right and title to, as well all the jurisdiction which this Commonwealth possesses, over so much of the public lands, not exceeding two acres, situate, lying and being in the county of Princess-Anne, at a place commonly called the head land of Cape Henry, as shall be sufficient to erect a light-house, subject to the terms and conditions following; that is to say, that a light-house shall be erected on the said land, and that all charges and expences of building, and rebuilding, when necessary, and keeping in good repair, the said light-house, together with the salaries, wages or hire of the person or persons appointed by the President of the United States for the superintendance and care of the same, and all the necessary supplies, with which a light-house ought to be furnished, shall be defrayed out of the treasury of the United States: −− If a light-house shall not be erected within the space of seven years, after the cession of the said two acres of land, by this Commonwealth to the United States in Congress assembled, or if at any time thereafter, the said light-house shall be suffered to fall into decay, or be rendered useless, as to the purposes for which it is to be erected, and so continue for the aforesaid period of seven years, then and in those cases, the property in the soil and jurisdiction, over the territory hereby directed to be vested in the United States in Congress assembled, shall revert to this Commonwealth, and be considered as the property and subject to the jurisdiction of the same, in like manner, as if this act had never been made: | Subject to certain conditions; United States to build thereon
a light-house, to support, repair and rebuild it when necessary. If not build within 7 years, or rendered useless for the same period, the land to revert to the Commonwealth. |
| SECT. 2. Provided, That nothing in this act contained, shall be construed to affect the right of this state to any materials heretofore placed at or near Cape Henry, for the purpose of erecting a light-house; and that the citizens of this Commonwealth shall not, in consequence of this cession, be debarred from the privileges they now enjoy of hauling their seines and fishing on the shores of the said land so ceded by this act to the United States, for the purpose of building a light-house. | Right of the state to certain materials lying thereon, and of its citizens to fish on the shores thereof not to be affected. |
| CHAP. VI. | ||
| ||
| (Passed the 19th of November, 1789.) | ||
| BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That the third section of the act, intituled "An act for discouraging extensive credits, and repealing the act prescribing the method of proving book debts," which directs courts and juries ex officio to take notice thereof, and determine accordingly, although the defendants shall not have pleaded it, in the same manner as if it had been specially pleaded, shall be and is hereby repealed; and that wheresoever in the said recited act the term of six months is mentioned, the same shall be extended to one year. So much of the said recited act, as comes within the purview of this act, is hereby repealed. | Courts and juries not to take notice ex officio of the act for discouraging
extensive credits. The term of six months to be extended to one year. | |
| CHAP. VII. An act providing remedy and punishment in cases of forcible entries and detainers. | ||
| (Passed the 19th of November, 1789.) | ||
| SECT. 1. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That none shall make any entry into any lands and tenements, or other possessions whatsoever, but in case where entry is given by the law; and in such case, not with strong hand, nor with multitude of people, but only in a peaceable and easy manner, and that none who shall have entered into the same in a peaceable manner, shall hold the same afterwards with force; and if any shall do to the contrary, on complaint thereof to any justices or justice of the peace, such justices or justice shall take sufficient power of the county, and go to the place where such force is made; and all the people of the county, as well the sheriff as others, shall be attendant upon the same | No lands or tenements to be entered or holden with force,
on complaint thereof to a justice, |
| justices, to go and assist them to arrest such offenders, upon pain of imprisonment and
amercement at the discretion of a jury. SECT. 2. And moreover though such persons making such entries be present or else departed, before the coming of the said justices or justice, notwithstanding, the said justices or justice in some convenient place according to their discretion, shall have authority and power to enquire by the people of the same county, as well of them that make such forcible entries in lands and tenements, as of them who hold the same with force; and if it be found before any of them, that any doth contrary to this act, then the said justices or justice shall cause to be re-seized, or to be repossessed, the lands and tenements so entered or holden as afore, and shall put the party so put out, in full possession thereof |
offenders to be arrested: all people of the county to attend on
pain of imprisonment and amercement. Justice to inquire by jury of the force, and to cause to be re-seized, the lands so entered or holden. |
| SECT. 3. And also when the said justice or justices make such enquiries as before, he or they shall make their warrants and precepts, to be directed to the sheriff of the same county, commanding him on behalf of the Commonwealth, to cause to come before him or them, fit persons to enquire of such entries; and if any sheriff be slack, and make not execution duly of the said precepts to him directed, to make such enquiries, he shall forfeit twenty-five pounds, recoverable before any court of record, as well by indictment or information, to be taken only for the Commonwealth, as by bill at the suit of the party grieved, as well for himself as for the Commonwealth, in which case one moiety of the said twenty-five pounds, shall be to the Commonwealth, and the other moiety, together with his costs and expences, shall be to the party suing. | To issue precept to the sheriff to summon a jury. Penalty on him for failing to execute it; how recoverable, and how to be applied. |
| SECT. 4. And moreover mayors, aldermen, and serjeants of cities and boroughs, shall have in the said cities and boroughs like power to remove such entries, and in other articles aforesaid, arising within the same, as the justices of peace and sheriffs in counties respectively have. | Mayors, aldermen and serjeants to have the same power as justices and sheriffs. |
| SECT. 5. But no restitution upon any indictment of forcible entry, or holding with force, shall be made to any, if the party indicted hath had the occupation, or hath been in quiet possession by the space of three whole years together, next before the day of such indictment so found, and his estate therein be not ended or determined; which the party indicted may alledge for stay of | Restitution not to be made if the party indicted hath had three years possession. |
| restitution, and restitution shall stay until that be tried, if the other will deny or traverse the same; and if the same allegation be tried against the party so indicted, then the same party so indicted, shall pay such costs and damages to the other party, as shall be assessed by the judges or justices before whom the same shall be tried. | to be stayed until that be tried. Party indicted to pay costs and damages if it be found against him. |
| CHAP. VIII. An act against forcible and stolen Marriages. | |
| (Passed the 19th of November, 1789.) | |
| SECT. 1. WHEREAS women, as well maidens, as widows and wives, having substances, some in goods moveable, and some in lands and tenements, and some being heirs apparent unto their ancestors, for the lucre of such substances, have been oftentimes taken by misdoers, contrary to their will, and afterwards married to such misdoers, or to others by their consent, or defiled. | Preamble. |
| Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That whatsoever person or persons, shall take any woman so against her will unlawfully, that is to say maid, widow or wife, such taking, and the procuring and abetting to the same, and also receiving wittingly the same woman so taken against her will, shall be felony: and that such misdoers, takers and procurers to the same, and receivers knowing the said offence in form aforesaid, shall be reputed and judged as principal felons. Provided always, that this act shall not extend to any person taking any woman, only claiming her as his ward or bondwoman. | Felony to take or abet any in taking any woman against her will,
or to receive any woman so taken. Not to affect those who take their wards or bondwomen. |
| SECT. 2. If any person above the age of fourteen years, shall unlawfully take or convey away or shall cause to be unlawfully taken or conveyed away, any maiden or woman child unmarried, being within the age of sixteen years, out of or from the possession and against the will of the father or mother of such maiden or woman child, or out of or from the possession and against the will of such person or persons, as then shall happen to have, or by any lawful ways or means, the order, keeping, education or governance of any such maiden, or woman child, and being thereof duly convicted, shall suffer imprisonment without bail or mainprize, | Any person above fourteen taking any unmarried woman child from
her parents or guardians against their will, to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding |
| for any term not exceeding two years, as should be adjudged against him | two years; | |
| SECT. 3. If any person or persons, shall so
take away, or cause to be taken away as is aforesaid, and deflower any such maid or woman child
as is aforesaid, or shall against the will or knowledge of the father of any such maid or woman
child, if the father be in life, or against the will or knowledge of the mother of any such maid
or woman child, having the custody or governance of such child, if the father be dead, by secret
letters, messages or otherwise, contract matrimony with any such maiden or woman child, every
person so offending, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall suffer imprisonment of his body,
by the space of five years, without bail or mainprize. CHAP. IX. |
or so taking such woman child and deflowering her, or contracting marriage with her, to be imprisoned 5 years without bail or mainprize. | |
| ||
| (Passed the 18th of November, 1789.) | ||
| SECT. 1. WHEREAS the great number of the laws of this Commonwealth, dispersed as they are through many different volumes, renders it often questionable, which of them are in force; copies of those laws are procured with difficulty, and only at high prices; and so many of them have been repealed, wholly or in part, were temporary and have expired; were occasional, and have had their effect; were private or local, or have been re-enacted in substance, in the laws, taken from the report of the revisors, appointed in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, that scarce a third of them concern the public at large. | Preamble. | |
| BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That James Mercer, Henry Tazewell, Joseph Prentis, Saint George Tucker, Edmund Randolph, James Innes, John Taylor and John Marshall, Esquires, be appointed, whose duty it shall be, first to report to the next session of the General | Certain persons appointed to revise the laws −− and to report to the General Assembly. |
| Assembly, what English statutes, if any there be, are suited to this Commonwealth, and shall not have been enacted in the form of Virginia laws; secondly, What laws or parts of laws, which are of a general concern, shall remain in force at the close of the present session of Assembly; thirdly, What laws on the same subject, ought from their multiplicity to be reduced into single acts; and fourthly, What laws or parts of laws are either unfit to be continued in force, or unnecessary to be published in any code of the laws; fifthly, To prepare and report as aforesaid, marginal notes and a full index to all the laws of the Commonwealth; sixthly, To note in due order of time and report as aforesaid, the titles of all those laws, which may be proper to be omitted, in a general compilation of the laws; and seventhly, to instruct the clerk of the House of Delegates, as far as it may be in their power, how to obtain for the use of his office, copies of those laws, the rolls whereof are lost. | To prepare marginal notes and a full index to the laws.
Copies of those laws, the rolls whereof are lost, to be procured. |
| SECT. 2. And for preventing many inconveniencies, which certain rules for the construction of laws have already occasioned, and may hereafter occasion: | |
| Be it further enacted by the General Assembly, That whensoever one law, which shall have repealed another, shall be itself repealed, the former law shall not be revived, without express words to that effect: every act passed during any stated annual session, shall commence in force on the first day of March then next ensuing, unless in the act isself, another day be particularly mentioned, for the commencement thereof. | A law repealed, not revived by repealing the law which repealed
the first. When the acts passed at stated sessions to commence in force. |
| SECT. 3. As often as a question shall arise, whether a law passed during any session, the same construction shall be made, as would have been made, if the act entituled "An act concerning election of members of General Assembly" had never been passed | Rule of construing laws passed at the same session. |
| SECT. 4. This act shall commence and be in force on the fifteenth day of January one thousand seven hundred and ninety. |
| CHAP. X. An act concerning homicide by misfortune. | ||
| (Passed the 18th of November, 1789.) | ||
| BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That in case it be found by the country, that any man by misfortune, or in his own defence, or in other manner without felony, did kill another, he shall be acquitted. | Any person killing another without felony to be acquitted. | |
| CHAP. XI. | ||
| ||
| (Passed the 18th of November, 1789.) | ||
| For a plain declaration of the law; Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That if any person shall unlawfully and carnally know and abuse any woman child under the age of ten years, every such unlawful and carnal knowledge shall be a felony; and the offender being duly convicted thereof, shall suffer as a felon, without allowance of clergy. | Felony without clergy to have carnal knowledge of a woman child under the age of ten years. | |
| CHAP. XII. An act allowing a bill of exceptions to be sealed., ch. cxxi. (Passed the 18th of November, 1789.) |
From rev. bills of 1779, | |
| BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That when one impleaded before any court and in any cause, where appeal, writ of error or supersedeas lies to a higher court, doth alledge an exception, praying, that the justices will allow it, if they will not allow it, and he that alledgeth the exception, do writ the same exception, and require that the justices, or the greater part of them present shall so do; and if such higher court upon complaint made of | Bills of exceptions to be sealed. |
| the said justices, cause the record to come before them, and the same exception be not found in the roll, and the plaintiff shew the exception be not found in the roll, and the plaintiff shew the exception written, with the seals of the justices put to it, the justices shall be commanded, that they appear at a certain day, either to confess or deny their seals, and if the justices cannot deny their seals, they shall proceed to judgment according to the same exception, as it ought to be allowed or disallowed. | If exceptions be omitted in the record justices to be summoned to confess or deny their seals. | |
| CHAP. XIII. | ||
| ||
| (Passed the 17th of December, 1789.) | ||
| SECT. 1. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That the general court shall no longer have jurisdiction over any cause which shall be depending therein on the thirty-first day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, by appeal, writ of error, supersedeas, or on a special verdict fond, or a case agreed in the said court, except such cases as may have been removed into the general court from the district courts, since the establishment thereof; but every cause so withdrawn from the general court, shall be sent to and tried in the court of that district wherein the land lieth, or if it be of any other kind to the court of the district in which the county lieth, the court whereof, rendered, gave or made the judgment, sentence or order, upon which the said appeal, writ of error or supersedeas is founded, or where the writ was served. | Certain causes depending in the general court transferred to the district courts. | |
| SECT. 2. The omission of the plaintiff on the return of any writ of supersedeas, to issue another, shall not in any case work a discontinuance, but the district court to which the cause may be sent, may issue other writs of supersedeas in like manner as such writs might have been issued by the general court, on the return of any preceding writ. | Omission on the return of a supersedeas to issue another not to work a discontinuance. | |
| SECT. 3. Every district court is hereby declared to have the same cognizance and authority over the causes |
| aforesaid so sent thereto, as the general court now hath, but no tax shall be demanded on the judgment rendered in the causes herein before directed, to be transferred from the general court to the district courts | No tax to be paid on judgments in the causes transferred to the district courts. |
| SECT. 4. The general court shall have jurisdiction and authority to hear and determine all causes, matters, suits and controversies testamentary which shall be brought before the same, and to examine and take the proofs of wills, and to hear and determine the right of administration of the estates of persons dying intestate, and to do all other things concerning wills and administrations according to law. | Jurisdiction of the general court in controversies concerning wills and intestates estates. |
| SECT. 5. The general court and the district courts within their respective districts shall have power to grant letters of administration during the infancy or absence of an executor, or ad colligendum bona defuncti or pendente lite, or until a will which may have once existed, but is destroyed, shall be established. | Concurrent jurisdiction of the general and district courts in granting administrations in certain cases: |
| SECT. 6. The bond and oath of the administrator in such cases shall be changed from the bond and oath of an administrator in ordinary cases, in such manner as to the said courts or any of them shall seem necessary. | Bond and oath of the administrator. |
| SECT. 7. Authenticated copies of wills proved according to the laws of any of the United States, or of countries without the limits of the same, and relative to any estate within this commonwealth, may be offered for probate in the general court; or where the estate so devised shall lie altogether in any one county or district, the court of such county or district respectively may admit to record any such authenticated copies, but the bond and oath of the executor or administrator with the will annexed, shall be changed from the bond and oath now required by law, in such manner as to the said court shall seem necessary, and the proof to be made by the witnesses shall be conformed to the nature of the case. But such will shall be liable to be contested and controverted in the same manner as the original might have been. | Copies of certain wills to be admitted to record, in what courts, Bond and oath of the executor or administrator, Proof to be made by the witnesses. Such wills may be contested. |
| SECT. 8. The general court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine motions against the delinquent subscribers of the Powtomack and James river companies, and for securities against their principals, and for sheriffs against their deputies and securities or either of them, to receive the proof of deeds for lands or other estate, and the relinquishment of any feme covert of her | Jurisdiction of the general court in certain cases. |
| right and interest therein, either in person or by commission according to law, and record the same: and to ascertain the average price of tobacco. | |
| SECT. 9. A deed for lands now or at any time hereafter partly proved in the general court, may be fully proved there, or shall be delivered by the clerk thereof to any person authorised to demand the same, with an indorsement of the proof made, and it may be fully proved and recorded in the court of the district in which the lands lie. | How deeds partly proved in the general court may be fully proved. |
| SECT. 10. But the general court shall not exercise any power, jurisdiction or authority in any causes civil or criminal, except what is expressly given thereto by this act, or the act intitled "An act establishing district courts and for regulating the general court," or hath been or shall be expressly given thereto by some act subsequent to the last recited act. | Limitation of the jurisdiction of the general court. |
| SECT. 11. Any person appointed a judge of
the general court, may act as a judge of the district, without having taken the oaths as a judge
of the general court. SECT. 12. Any person appointed or to be appointed a judge of the general court, may take the oaths required by law to be taken by a judge of the general and district courts before the executive, any court of record, or a justice of the peace, and a certificate thereof being obtained, shall enable him to do all the duties of office, any law to the contrary notwithstanding; such certificate shall be recorded in the general or district court where such judge shall first sit. |
When a judge of the general court may act without taking certain
oaths. Before whom a judge of the general court may take the oaths of office: The certificate of his taking such oaths to be recorded. |
| SECT. 13. The appeals which before the passing of the act intitled "An act establishing district courts and for regulating the general court," were sent to the general court and were returnable to a wrong day, shall be sent for trial to the proper district court in the same manner as other appeals. | Appeals returnable to a wrong day to be sent for trial with other appeals −− |
| SECT. 14. Executions may be issued from the
general court returnable to the second term of the said court, following the day of issuing the
same. SECT. 15. The suits remaining in the general court because the residence of the defendants is not know, shall be tried in the district court held in the city of Richmond, and the said suits, or any other suits not sent in due time to the district courts, shall not for that reason only be discontinued. |
When executions issuing from the general court may de returnable. Certain suits remaining in general court to be tried in district court held in Richmond. Suits not discontinued because not sent in time to the district courts. |
| SECT. 16. And be it further enacted, That whensoever any one of the judges allotted to a district court shall not attend the same, let the cause of non-attendance be what it will, the judge who shall attend, shall constitute a court in the same manner as if the non-attending judge had been sick or otherwise disabled; and any one judge may hear and determine a motion in behalf of the commonwealth for giving judgment and awarding of execution against any person convicted of a capital offence, where such criminal shall escape between the conviction and the sentence, or against any person attainted of a capital offence, where the day of execution shall have passed, and no pardon or reprieve shall have been granted. | One judge to constitute a district court, and may give judgment and award execution against persons convicted of capital offences. |
| SECT. 17. A certiorari to remove proceedings on a forcible entry or detainer, or for any other purpose, except the removal of a suit from an inferior court, may be granted without notice. | Where a certiorari may be granted without notice. |
| SECT. 18. A writ of supersedeas may be granted by the court of appeals or any judge thereof, to a judgment of any district court, in the same manner and on the same terms as a supersedeas is directed to be granted by the district court to a judgment of a county court; bond shall be given as in the case of appeal from a district court to the court of appeals. | Court of appeals may grant writs of supersedeas. |
| SECT. 19. It shall be lawful for the same
judge to attend the same district court twice successively. SECT. 20. Where the clerk of a district court may not attend, or a vacancy in that office be not filled up by an appointment, it shall be lawful for the judges or judge allotted to such district as the case may be, to appoint a clerk pro tempore. |
A judge may attend the same district court twice
successively. When clerks pro tempore of the district courts may be appointed. |
| SECT. 21. The seventy-seventh section of the
act intitled "An act establishing district courts and for
regulating the general courts," shall be and is hereby repealed. SECT. 22. So much of the eighty-eighth section of the above recited act, as directs, that no supersedeas shall be issued in any case except such as in respect to its value or nature would have admitted an appeal, and also the eighty-ninth section of the said law shall be repealed; and that writs of error or supersedeas may be granted by a district court or any judge of the general court to a judgment of a county court, where such judgment shall be of the value of ten pounds, or one thousand pounds of tobacco or upwards. |
The seventy-seventh section, part of the eighty-eighth and the 89th of the act establishing district courts repealed. −− Writ of error or supersedeas may issue to judgments for ten pounds or upwards. |
| SECT. 23. For good cause shewn, the general
court may direct a trial at bar, or cause a suit depending in one district to be tried in
another. SECT. 24. The district court for the counties of Accomack and Northampton, shall be held on the fourteenth day of May of the fourteenth day of October in every year; but should either of those days happen on a Sunday, then the said courts shall be holden on the next day. |
General court may direct suits to be tried at their bar or in
other districts. Days of holding Accomack district courts changed. |
| SECT. 25. The next court to be held for the district composed of the counties of Wythe, Washington and Russell, shall be held at the courthouse in the county of Wythe, late the courthouse for the county of Montgomery, and thereafter every court for the said district, shall be holden at Washington courthouse only. | Where the court for the district of Wythe, Washington and Russel to be held. |
| SECT. 26. And be it enacted, That if the proprietor of the Sweet Springs shall fail to contract with the justices of Botetourt county for the building of such a courthouse and prison as they may judge necessary, at his own expence, on or before the twelfth day of March next, and to be completed within two years from that day, it shall be lawful for the proprietor of the Red Springs, to contract with the said justices for the erecting the said courthouse and prison at the Red Springs at his own expence, to be completed within two years after such contract with the justices aforesaid, and after the same shall be so erected, then the Red Springs shall become the seat of the district court, directed by the said recited act, in the same manner as if the courthouse and prison had ben erected at the Sweet Springs. | When and by whom courthouse and prison in the Botetourt district to be built. |
| SECT. 27. A district court may adjourn a
question of law in any criminal case to the general court with the consent of the criminal, which
may be there argued and decided, although such criminal be not present. SECT. 28. No justice of the peace or member of a corporation court, who shall have committed any person for examination by the court of his county or corporation, or shall have been a member of the examining court, shall be sworn on the petit jury empannelled for the trial of such person. |
Questions of law in criminal cases may be adjourned from a
district to the general court. A justice committing or examining a criminal not to be sworn on the petit jury. |
| SECT. 29. Unless good cause be shewn to the
contrary, the general court shall direct a suit, depending before a district court in which a
judge of the general court is a party, to be removed to be tried at the bar of the general
court. |
General court may remove and try at their bar any suits in a district court in which one of the judges is a party. |
| SECT. 30. The general court and the clerk thereof, may grant commissions for the examination of witnesses in the causes therein depending, in the same manner as a district court and the clerk thereof respectively. | The general court and the clerk thereof to grant commissions for examining witnesses. |
| SECT. 31. The appearance day to all writs and process shall be according to the direction of the general court. | Appearance day in writs and other process. |
| SECT. 32. To prevent misconstruction, it is hereby declared, that the sheriff of the county in which the district court shall sit, shall execute all judgments rendered by such court in any criminal case, provided such judgments are by law to be executed in the said county. | What sheriff to execute judgments of the district courts in criminal cases. |
| SECT. 33. All office judgments, which are now suspended, shall be sent to the district courts, according to the law in other cases, and all office judgments which have been or shall be sent to the district courts may be set aside in the same manner, that office judgments entered in the district courts may be set aside. | Certain office judgments to be sent to the district courts, how to be set aside. |
| SECT. 34. For the services already rendered by the clerk of the general court, in preparing the causes to be sent to the district courts in pursuance of the district law: and for those to be rendered by him in the execution of this act, the executive having regard to the fee bill, shall make him compensation, to be paid out of the contingent fund. | Allowance to the clerk of the general court for preparing the causes for the district courts, how to be paid. |
| SECT. 35. If a record on an appeal, writ of error or supersedeas be not delivered to the clerk of the district court before or during the second term of such court after the same was granted, the same shall not be received at any time thereafter, unless good cause be shewn to the court to the contrary; and after such dismission, not writ of error or supersedeas shall be allowed. | When records on appeals, writs of error, &c. are to be sent to the district courts. |
| SECT. 36. Every district court may make a reasonable allowance to the sheriff and jailor attending the same, for their trouble, as well for their services heretofore rendered, as those in future to be by them performed, to be paid as the cryer of the general court; and the auditor of public accounts is hereby required to issue warrants in favour of such persons as have heretofore acted as cryers in the several district courts, agreeably to the certificates of the clerks of the said courts, to be paid in the same manner as the cryer of the general court. | Allowance to sheriffs and jailors attending district courts,
and to cryers for services heretofore performed, and how to be paid. |
| SECT. 37. Where judgment shall be rendered against a sheriff or his deputy on motion in any court within this Commonwealth, for failing to pay money levied | Sheriffs to pay interest on money levied |
| by execution, the same shall be for the sum levied, with interest thereon, at the rate of fifteen per centum per annum, from the return day of the execution until the judgment shall be discharged. | by execution and retained by them. |
| SECT. 38. When any debtor is in custody on several executions, it shall not be lawful for such debtor to demand any more or other dieting than if he was in custody on one execution only, nor shall any sheriff or jailor demand or receive more than the rate fixed by law, in case of a debtor confined on one execution only, which shall be paid by the creditor at whose suit such debtor was first taken. So much of all acts as comes within the purview of this act is hereby repealed. | Dieting allowed a debtor in custody under several executions,
and allowance to the sheriff therefor. |
| CHAP. XIV. An act concerning the erection of the district of Kentuckey into an independent state. | |
| (Passed the 18th of December, 1789.) | |
| SECT. 1. WHEREAS it is represented to this present General Assembly, that the act of last session intitled 788"An act concerning the erection of the district of Kentuckey into an independent state," which contains terms materially different from those of the act of October session, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, are found incompatible with the real views of this Commonwealth, as well as injurious to the good people of the said district: | Preamble. |
| Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That in the month of May next, on the respective court days of the counties within the said district, and at the respective places of holding courts therein, representatives to continue in appointment for one year, and to compose a convention with the powers, and for the purposes herein after mentioned, shall be elected by the free male inhabitants of each county above the age of twenty-one years, in like manner as delegates to the General Assembly have been elected within said district in the proportions following: In the county of Jefferson shall be elected five representatives; | Representatives, to compose a convention, to be elected in the
Kentuckey district. Qualification of the electors, where they are to vote, |
| in the county of Nelson five representatives; in the county of Mercer five representatives; in the county of Lincoln five representatives; in the county of Madison five representatives; in the county of Woodford five representatives; in the county of Bourbon five representatives; in the county of Madison five representatives: Provided, that no free male inhabitant above the age of twenty-one years, shall vote in any other county except that in which he resides, and that no person shall be capable of being elected unless he has been a resident within the said district at least one year. | Qualification of the representatives, |
| SECT. 2. That full opportunity may be given to the good people of exercising their right of suffrage on an occasion so interesting to them, each of the officers holding such elections, shall continue the same from day to day, passing over Sunday, for five days, including the first day, and shall cause this act to be read on each day immediately preceding the opening of the election, at the door of the court-house or other convenient place; each of the said officers shall deliver to each person duly elected a representative, a certificate of his election, and shall transmit a general return to the clerk of the supreme court, to be by him laid before the convention. | Elections to be continued five days, Duty of the sheriffs conducting them, |
| SECT. 3. For every neglect of any of the duties hereby enjoined on such officer, he shall forfeit one hundred pounds, to be recovered by action of debt by any person suing for the same. | Penalty on them for neglect. |
| SECT. 4. The said convention shall be held at Danville on the twenty-sixth day of July next, and shall and may proceed, after choosing a president and other proper officers, and settling the proper rules of proceeding, to consider and determine whether it be expedient for, and the will of the good people of the said district that the same be erected into an independent state, on the terms and conditions following: | The convention to determine on the expediency of erecting the said district into an independent state, on certain conditions; |
| SECT. 5. First, that the boundary between the proposed state and Virginia, shall remain the same as at present separates the district from the residue of this Commonwealth. | Boundary between the proposed state and this Commonwealth. |
| SECT. 6. Second, that the proposed state shall take upon itself a just proportion of the debt of the United States, and the payment of all the certificates granted on account of the several expeditions carried on from the Kentuckey | The proposed state to pay part of the debt of the United States |
| district against the Indians, since the first day of January one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five. | and of this Commonwealth. |
| SECT. 7. Third, that all private rights and interests of lands within the said district, derived from the laws of Virginia prior to such separation, shall remain valid and secure under the laws of the proposed state, and shall be determined by the laws now existing in this state. | Rights to lands derived from this commonwealth to be secured. |
| SECT. 8. Fourth, that the lands within the proposed state of non resident proprietors, shall not in any case be taxed higher than the lands of residents, at any time prior to the admission of the proposed state to a vote by its delegates in Congress, where such non residents reside out of the United States; nor at any time either before or after such admission, where such non residents reside within this Commonwealth, within which this stipulation shall be reciprocal; or where such non residents reside within any other of the United States, which shall declare the same to be reciprocal within its limits; nor shall a neglect of cultivation or improvement of any land within either the proposed state or this Commonwealth, belonging to non residents, citizens of the other, subject such non residents to forfeiture or other penalty within the term of six years after the admission of the said state into the Fœderal Union. | How lands of non resident proprietors are to be taxed,
when forfeited for neglect of cultivation. |
| SECT. 9. Fifth, that no grant of land or land warrant to be issued by the proposed state, shall interfere with any warrant heretofore issued from the land office of Virginia, which shall be located on land within said district now liable thereto, on or before the first day of September one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one. | Grants of lands by this Commonwealth and the proposed state not to interfere. |
| SECT. 10. Sixth, that the unlocated lands within the said district, which stand appropriated to individuals or description of individuals, by the laws of this Commonwealth, for military or other services, shall be exempt from the disposition of the proposed state, and shall remain subject to be disposed of by the Commonwealth of Virginia, according to such appropriation, until the first day of may one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, and no longer: thereafter the residue of all lands remaining with the limits of the said district, shall be subject to the disposition of the proposed state. | Unlocated lands appropriated to individuals for military services to be disposed of by this Commonwealth. |
| SECT. 11. Seventh, that the use and navigation of the river Ohio, so far as the territory of the proposed state, or the territory which shall remain within the limits of this Commonwealth lies thereon, shall be free and common | Navigation of the Ohio to be free and common |
| to the citizens of the United States, and the respective jurisdictions of this Commonwealth and of the proposed state on the river as aforesaid, shall be concurrent only with the states which may possess the opposite shores of the said river. | |
| SECT. 12. Eighth, that in case any compliant or dispute shall at any time arise between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the said district, after it shall be an independent state, concerning the meaning or execution of the foregoing articles, the same shall be determined by six commissioners, of whom two shall be chosen by each of the parties, and the remainder by the commissioners so first appointed. | Commissioners to settle disputes which may arise respecting the foregoing articles |
| SECT. 13. Provided however, That five members assembled, shall be a sufficient number to adjourn from day to day, and to issue writs for supplying vacancies which may happen from deaths, resignations or refusals to act; a majority of the whole shall be a sufficient number to chuse a president, settle the proper rules of proceeding, authorise any number to summon a convention during a recess, and to act in all other instances where a greater number is not expressly required. Two thirds of the whole shall be a sufficient number to determine on the expediency of forming the said district into an independent state on the aforesaid terms and conditions, Provided, that a majority of the whole number to be elected concur therein. | What number of members necessary to proceed to business,
and to determine the question concerning the erection of the said district into an independent state. |
| SECT. 14. And be it further enacted, That if the said convention shall approve of the erection of the said district into an independent state on the foregoing terms and condition, they shall and may proceed to fix a day posterior to the first day of November, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, on which the authority of this commonwealth, and of its laws under the exceptions aforesaid, shall cease and determine forever over the proposed state, and the said articles become a solemn compact mutually binding on the parties, and unalterable by either without the consent of the other. | When the authority of this Commonwealth over the said district to cease. |
| SECT. 15. Provided however, That prior to the first day of November, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, the general government of the United States shall assent to the erection of the said district into an independent state, shall release this Commonwealth from all its fœderal obligations arising from the said district as being part thereof, and shall agree that the proposed state | The assent of the general government to be obtained. |
| shall immediately after the day to be fixed as aforesaid posterior to the first day of November one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, or at some convenient time future thereto, be admitted into the Fœderal Union. | |
| SECT. 16. And to the end that no period of anarchy may happen to the good people of the proposed state, it is to be understood that the said convention shall have authority to take the necessary provisional measures for the election and meeting of a convention, at some time prior to the day fixed for the determination of the authority of this Commonwealth, and of its laws over said district, and posterior to the first day of November one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one aforesaid, with full power and authority to frame and establish a fundamental constitution of government for the proposed state, and to declare what laws shall be in force therein, until the same shall be abrogated or altered by the legislative authority acting under the constitution so to be framed and established. | The convention to provide for the establishment of a constitution of government for the proposed state. |
| SECT. 17. And be it further enacted, That the electors in going to, continuing at, and returning from an election of members to the said convention, shall be entitled to the same privileges from arrest, as are by law allowed at an election of members to the General Assembly, and each person returned to serve as a member in said convention, shall be entitled to the same privileges from arrest in going to, during his attendance on, and returning from said convention, as are by law allowed to the members of the General Assembly. | Privileges of the electors, and of the representatives. |
| SECT. 18. This act shall be transmitted by
the executive to the representatives of this Commonwealth in Congress, who are hereby instructed
to use their endeavours to obtain from Congress a speedy act to the effect above
specified. |
The executive to transmit this act to this Commonwealth's representatives in Congress. |
| Volume Map
| Pages 22-46
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