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Lincoln coun

CHAP. LIV.*

An act for dividing the county of
Lincoln into three distinct counties.

I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That ty divided, & from and after the first day of August next, the county Mercer and of Lincoln shall be divided into three distinct counties,

Madison formed.

Boundaries.

that is to say: So much of the said county bounded by a line beginning at the confluence of Sugar-creek and Kentucky river; thence a direct line to the mouth of Clark's run; thence a straight line to Wilson's Station, in the fork of Clark's run; thence the same course continued to the line of Nelson county; thence with the said line to the line of Jefferson county; thence with that line to Kentucky river; thence up the said river to the beginning, shall be one distinct county, and called and known by the name of Mercer; that such further parts of the said county, within the following lines, to wit, beginning at the confluence of Kentucky river and Sugar-creek, thence up the said creek to the fork James Thompson lives on; thence up the said fork to the head thereof; thence a straight line to where an east course from John Ellis's will intersect the top of the Ridge that divides the waters of Paint-Lick from the waters of Dick's river; thence along the top of the said Ridge southwardly, opposite to Hickman's Lick; thence south forty-five degrees east to the main Rock-Castle river; thence up the said river to the head thereof; thence with the Ridge that divides the waters of Kentucky river from the waters of Cumberland river, to the line of Washington county; thence along the said line to the main fork of Kentucky river that divides the county of Fayette from the county of Lincoln; thence down the said river to the beginning, shall be one other distinct county, and called and known by the name of Madison; and all the residue of the said county shall retain the Court days. name of Lincoln. A court for the said county of Mercer shall be held by the justices thereof on the first Tuesday in every month, and also, a court for the said county of Madison shall be held by the justices thereof on the fourth Tuesday in every month, after the said

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division shall take place, in such manner as is by law provided for other counties, and shall be by their commissions respectively directed. The justices to be named in the commission of the peace for the said county of Mercer, shall meet at Harrodsburg, in the said county, and the justices to be named in the commission of the peace for the said county of Madison, shall meet at the house of George Adams, in the said county, upon their respective court-days, after the said division shall take place; and having taken the oaths prescribed by law, and administered the oath of office to, and taken bond of the respective sheriffs, according to law, proceed to appoint each a clerk, and fix upon a place for holding courts in each of the said counties, at or as near the centre thereof as the situation and convenience will admit; and thenceforth each of the said courts shall proceed to erect the necessary public buildings at such place, and until such buildings be completed, to appoint any place for holding courts as they shall respectively think proper. Provided always, That the appointment of a place for holding ourts, and of a clerk, shall not be made unless a majority of the justices of each of the said counties be present; where such majority shall have been prevented from attending by bad weather, or their being at the time out of the county, in such cases the appointment shall be postponed until some court day when a majority shall be present. The governor with advice of the council, shall appoint a person to be first sheriff of each of the said counties, who shall continue in office during the term, and upon the same conditions, as is by law appointed for other sheriffs. It shall be lawful for the sheriff of the said county of Lincoln to collect and make distress for any public dues or officers fees, which remain unpaid by the inhabitants thereof at the time such division shall take place, and shall be accountable for the same, in like manner as if this act had not been made. And that the court of the said county of Lincoln, shall have jurisdiction of all actions and suits, in law and equity, depending before them at the time of the said division, and shall try and determine the same, and issue process, and award execution thereon. In all elections of a senator, the said counties of Mercer and Madison shall be of the same district with the said county of Lincoln.

II. And be it further enacted, That all principal surveyors heretofore appointed, or hereafter to be appointed, shall, and they are hereby authorized, to demand and receive all entries, warrants, and certificates, from the principal surveyors of the old county which may not have been surveyed when the county was divided, and which may, on the division, fall within the limits of the new counties.

CHAP. LV.

From Rev. An act concerning election of members of general assembly.

Bills of 1779,

ch. II.

Delegatesand senatorswhen to be elected.

I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That the delegates for the several counties, and the city of Williamsburg and borough of Norfolk, and the six senators for one of the four classes of districts, in the room of those who will annually be displaced, shall be chosen, in the manner hereafter directed, in the month of April in every year, on the court days of each respective county or corporation, and shall meet together, When assem- and with the remaining senators, on the third Monday of October then next following, in general assembly, at the place the last preceding general assembly shall have sat in, or adjourned to, unless such place be in possession of a public enemy, or infected with the plague or small-pox, in which case they shall meet at such other place as the governor, with the advice of the council shall appoint, and notify by proclamation.

bly to meet.

Right of suf frage.

II. Every male citizen (other than free negroes or mulattoes) of this commonwealth, aged twenty-one years, or such as have refused to give assurance of fidelity to the commonwealth, being possessed, or whose tenant for years, at will, or at sufferance, is possessed of twenty-five acres of land, with a house, the superficial content of the foundation whereof is twelve feet square, or equal to that quantity, and a plantation thereon, or fifty acres of unimproved land, or a lot or part of a lot of land in a city or town established by

act of general assembly with a house thereon, of the like superficial content or quantity, having in such land an estate of freehold at the least, and, unless the title shall have come to him by descent, devise, marriage, or marriage-settlement, having been so possessed six months, and no other person shall be qualified to vote for delegates to serve in general assembly, for the county, city, or borough respectively, in which the land lieth. If the fifty acres of land being one entire parcel, lie in several counties, the holders shall vote in that county wherein the greater part of the land lieth only; and if the twenty-five acres of land, being one entire parcel, be in several counties, the holder shall vote in that county wherein the house standeth only. In right of land holden by parceners, joint-tenants, or tenants in common, but one vote shall be given by all the holders capable of voting, who shall be present, and agree to vote for the same candidate or candidates, unless the quantity of land, in case partition had been made thereof, be sufficient to entitle every holder present to vote separately, or unless some one or more of the holders may lawfully vote in right of another estate or estates in the same county, in which case the others may vote, if holding solely, they might have voted.

III. Every person having such a freehold in the Qualifications city of Williamsburg or borough of Norfolk, as will of electors in Williamsburg qualify him to vote for delegates to represent the coun- and Norfolk. ty, and also every freeman, except as before excepted, aged twenty one years, being a citizen of the commonwealth, and not having refused to give assurance of fidelity, who shall be a house keeper, and shall have resided for six months in the said city or borough, and shall be possessed of a visible estate of the value of fifty pounds at least, or shall actually have served as an apprentice to some trade within the said city or borough for the term of five years, and shall have obtained a certificate of such service from the court of Hustings, under the common seal of the city or borough, and no other, shall be qualified to vote for a delegate to represent the said city or borough respectively in general assembly. Every person qualified as aforesaid to vote Who may be for delegates, shall be capable of being elected a dele- elected. gate for the county, city, or borough, or senator for the

VOL. III.

Q

serve.

to vote.

secuted.

e

Who not com district in which he resides. No person who shall have pellable to served as a member of the legislature for seven years in the whole, shall be afterwards compellable to serve Penalty on e. therein. Any elector qualified according to this act, lectors failing failing to attend any annual election of delegates or of a senator, and, if a poll be taken, to give or offer to give his vote, shall pay one fourth of his portion of all such levies and taxes as shall be assessed and levied in his county the ensuing year: And for discovering such How disco- defaulters, the sheriff or other officer taking the poll, vered & pro- shall with ten days after the said election, deliver to the clerk of the county or corporation court, as the case may be, a copy of the poll by him taken, to be kept in his office, who shall suffer any candidate or elector to take a copy thereof, and the said clerk is hereby directed to cause a copy of the same to be delivered to the next grand-jury to be sworn for the county or corporation, who shall be charged by the presiding magistrate to make presentment of all such persons qualified to vote residing in the said county or corporation, who shall have failed to have given their votes at the said election agreeable to law. And for the better information of the said jury, the sheriff of the county is hereby commanded, under the penalty of fifty pounds, to be recovered and appropriated as the penalties for other neglects of his duty, to lay before them a list of all the land-holders resident therein, Electors pri- Every elector, going to, abiding at, and returning vileged from from an election, shall be privileged from arrests one day for every twenty miles he shall necessarily travel, exclusive of the day of election; and any process against such elector, executed during such privilege, shall be void. Upon the election of a senator, and also Polls, how of a delegate, or delegates, when the election of such delegate or delegates cannot be determined by view, the sheriff, or in his absence the under sheriff of the county, or the mayor of the city or borough, shall in presence of the candidates, or their agents, cause the poll to be taken in the court-house, or if that be in a town infected with any contagious disease, or be in danger of an attack from a public enemy, at some other place according to these directions: He shall appoint such and so many writers as he shall think fit, who shall respectively take an oath, to be administered by him, or make solemn affirmation that they

arrests.

taken.

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