their opinion the health of the neighbours will be annoyed by the stagnation of the waters. And the inquest so made and sealed by the said jurors, together with the writ, shall be returned by the said sheriff to the succeeding court, who shall thereupon order summonses to be issued to the several persons, proprietors or tenants of the land's so located, or found liable to damage, if they be to be found within the county, and if not, then to their agents therein, if any they have, to shew cause why the party applying should not have leave to build the said mill and dam. And in like manner, if the person proposing to build such mill and dam shall have the fee-simple property in the lands on both sides the stream, yet application shall be made to the court of the county wherein the mill-house will stand, for a writ to examine as aforesaid what lands may be overflowed, and say to what damage it will be of to the several proprietors, and whether the mansion house of any such proprietor, or the offices, curtilage, or garden, thereto immediately belonging, or orchards, will be overflowed; also, whether, and in what degree fish of passage and ordinary navigation will be obstructed thereby, whether by any, and by what means, such obstruction may be prevented, and whether in their opinion the health of the neighbours will be annoyed by the stagnation of waters; which writ shall be directed, executed and returned, as prescribed in the forAnd if on such inquest, or on other evibuild, when dence, it shall appear to the court that the mansion granted. house of any proprietor, or the offices, curtilage, or garden, thereto immediately belonging, or orchards, will be overflowed, or the health of the neighbours be annoyed, they shall not give leave to build the said mill and dam; but if none of these injuries are likely to ensue, they shall then proceed to consider whether, all circumstances weighed, it be reasonable that such leave should be given, and shall give or not give it accordingly; and if given, they shall lay the party applying under such conditions for preventing the obstruction, if any there will be, of fish of passage and ordinary navigation, as to them shall seem right.

Leave to mer case.

Payment of valuation mo. hay.

II. And if the party applying obtain leave to build the said mill and dam, he shall, upon paying respectively to the several parties entitled, the value of the acre located, and the damages which the jurors find will be

done by overflowing the lands above or below, become seized in fee-simple of the said acre of land. But if he Effect of not shall not, within one year thereafter, begin to build building, or e-building, the said mill, and finish the same in three years, and in time. afterwards continue it in good repair for public use, or in case the said mill or dam be destroyed, if he shall not begin to rebuild it within one year after such destruction, and finish it within three years, the said acre of land shall revert to the former proprietor, and his heirs, unless at the time of such destruction of the said mill or dam the owner thereof be an infant, feme covert, imprisoned, or of unsound mind, in which case he shall be allowed the same terms for beginning and compleating the said mill or dam after such disability removed.

seen.

III. The inquest of the said jurors nevertheless, or Inquest no opinion of the court, shall not bar any prosecution or bar to dama. action, which any person would have had in law, had ges not forethis act never been made, other than for such injuries as were actually foreseen and estimated by the said jury.

IV. It shall be lawful for the owner or tenant of any such mill, or of any other grist-mill, to take for toll one eighth part, and no more, of all grain of which the remaining part shall be ground into meal, and one sixteenth part, and no more, of that, the remainder of which shall be ground into hominy or malt.

Toll.

Who may

V. No owner or tenant of any mill, not having fifty acres of land adjoining thereto, shall keep any swine un- keep hogs at inclosed at such mill, on pain that the same shall be lia- mills. ble to be taken and converted to his own use by the proprietor or tenant of any adjacent lands, or by any other person authorized by them.

Locks and

VI. Where the owner of any mill now standing, or licensed to be built, hath by any act of assembly been slopes. compelled to make locks, slopes, or opening, for navigation, or the passage of fish, the same shall be continued under the conditions imposed by such act, and shall be deemed sufficient in law, so long as the dam now standing, or building, shall remain: But it shall not be lawful to rebuild such dam in future, but on enquiry by jury into the obstructions of fish and navigation, and the means of preventing the same, and the final order of the court, to be applied for and conducted in the manner before directed in other cases.

structions in

Hedges,weirs VII. It shall not be lawful for any person to erect or and other ob fix in any water-course, any dam, hedge, weir, seine, watercourses drag, or other stoppage, whereby navigation, or the prohibited passage of fish, may be obstructed, save only for the purpose of working some machine or engine useful to the public, in which cases the same proceedings shall be had as are before directed in the case of a water grist-mill, or for the purpose of a water grist-mill, before provided for: And where any such are now standing, or shall hereafter be erected or fixed, the owner or tenant of the lands adjacent thereto (whether the same were erected or fixed by himself or another) shall cause it to be abated: And whoso offendeth herein, shall be deemed guilty of a nuisance.

Commence. ment of act.

VIII. This act shall commence and be in force from and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven,

From Rev Bills of 1777 ch. LII.

Servants who

may be, and how long to

serve.

Duty of mas. térs.

CHAP. LXXXIII.

An act concerning servants.

I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That all white persons not being citizens of any of the confederated states of America, who shall come into this commonwealth under contract to serve another in any trade or occupation, shall be compellable to perform such contract specifically during the term thereof, or during so much of the same as shall not exceed seven years. Infants under the age of fourteen years brought in under the like contract, entered into with the consent of their father or guardian, shall serve till their age of twenty-one years only, or for such shorter term as the said contract shall have fixed.

II. The said servants shall be provided by their master with wholesome and sufficient food, clothing and lodging, and at the end of their service, if they shall not have contracted for any reward, other than transportation, food, clothing, and lodging, shall receive from him one new and complete suit of clothing suited

to the season of the year, to wit, a coat, waistcoat, pair of breeches and shoes, two pair of stockings, two shirts, a hat, and blanket.

signable.

III. The benefit of the said contract of service shall How contract be assignable by the master to any person to whom the for service as servant shall, in the presence of a justice of the peace, freely consent that it shall be assigned, the said justice attesting such free consent in writing, and shall also pass to the executors, administrators, and legatees of

the master.

IV. Any such servant being lazy, disorderly, guilty Servants,how of misbehaviour to his master, or in his master's family, punished, shall be corrected by stripes, on order from a justice. of the county, city, or corporation, wherein he resides, or refusing to work, shall be compelled thereto in like manner, and moreover shall serve two days for every one he shall have so refused to serve, or shall otherwise have lost, without sufficient justification. All necessary Runaway serexpences incurred by any master for apprehending and vants,to combringing home any absconding servant shall be repaid loss of time. by further service, after such rates as the court of the county, city, or corporation shall direct, unless such servant shall give security, to be approved of by the said court, for re-payment in money within six months after he shall be free from service, and shall accordingly pay the same.

pensate for

servants against mas. ters, how re

V. If any master shall fail in the duties prescribed by Complaints of this act, or shall be guilty of injurious demeanor towards his servant, it shall be redressed, on motion by the court of the county, city, or corporation, wherein the dressed. servant resides, by immediate discharge from service if the injury were gross, or by a specific order for a change in his demeanor and a discharge from service, if such order be disobeyed.

Contracts be.

VI All contracts between master and servant during tween master the time of service shall be void.

and servant void.

VII. This act shall commence and be in force from Commenceand after the first day of January, one thousand seven ment of aet. hundred and eighty-seven.

From Rev.

Bills of 1779,

ch. LIII.

Runaway ser

vants & slaves how appre hended and dealt with.

CHAP. LXXXIV.

An act for apprehending and securing runaways.

1. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That any person may apprehend a servant or slave, suspected to be a runaway, and carry him before a justice of the peace, who, if to him the servant or slave appear, by the oath of the apprehender, to be a runaway, shall give a certificate of such oath. and the distance, in his opinion, between the place where the runaway was apprehended and that from whence he fled; and the apprehender shall thereupon carry the runaway to the last mentioned place, or deliver him to the owner, or some other authorized to receive him, and shall be entitled to ten shillings, and one shilling for every mile of such distance as he shall necessarily carry him, to be paid by the owner. The runaway, if the owner be not known, or reside not in the commonwealth, shall be, by warrant of the justice, committed to the jail of his county, the keeper whereof shall forthwith cause an ́advertisement, with a description of the runaway's person and wearing apparel, to be set up at the door of the court-house, and of every church in his county within ten miles. If the owner claim not within two months thereafter, the sheriff shall publish a like advertisement in the Virginia Gazette for three months, and shall hire the runaway out during such time, and for such wages as his county court shall approve, having put an iron collar, stamped with the letter F. round his neck, and out of the wages pay the reward for apprehending, and the expences incurred on his account; but he shall deliver the runaway, even before the time expire, and pay the balance of the wages received, if any, to him who shall claim, and who having proved before the court of some county, or a justice of the peace of the county in which such runaway is confined, that he had lost such an one as was described in the advertisement, and having there given security to indemnify the sheriff, shall produce the clerk's or the justice's certificate of such proof made and security given, prove, by his own or another's oath, the runaway when shewn to him, to be