County courts not to grant certificates for such rights. Time allowed Provided also, and be it further enacted, That no county court within this commonwealth, shall, after the passing of this act, exercise a power of granting certificates for settlement or pre-emption rights. And whereas sundry persons have been prevented for obtaining by unavoidable accident from obtaining and entering and entering pre-emption warrants before the register of the land pre-emption office was prohibited from issuing any more warrants warrants. tion. by a resolution of the general assembly, Be it further enacted, That all such persons shall be allowed until the said last day of December, to obtain and enter such warrants. And that every person intitled to a preemption warrant as aforesaid, shall pay into the pubConsidera- lic treasury thirteen shillings and four pence for every hundred acres of land in specie or audited certificates in full for the state price heretofore required, which being audited and a certificate thereof produced to the register of the land office, the said register is hereby authorized and directed to issue such warrant to the party entitled to the same or to his assigns. Time limited entries on eastern waters, and ma king returns to land office And whereas by sundry acts of assembly entries and for surveying surveys on the eastern waters have been hitherto protected from forfeiture, and it is reasonable that a certain time should be limitted for surveying such entries and making return thereof to the land office, Be it therefore enacted, That the entries for lands on the eastern waters, which have been legally made before the first day of January, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty, except entries made within the district of the Northern Neck, shall proceed to survey the same with all practicable dispatch, which surveys, together with those already made and founded upon entries of the above description, shall be returned into the register's office on or before the first day of October, one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight, and not after, and on failure of such surveys being made and returned on or before the said first day of October, one thousand, seven hundred and eighty eight, such lands are hereby declared vacant, and shall be liable to be located in the same manner, as other unappropriated lands within this commonwealth. And be it enacted, That the owners of entries for lands within the district of the Northern Neck regularly ing entries in nade before the seventeenth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty For survey Northern five, shall proceed to survey the same, which surveys, Composition, in what pay. Grants on turned to And whereas many surveys regularly made and returned into the proprietor's office before the said seven- surveys reteenth day of October one thousand seven hundred proprietor's and eighty-five, have been ungranted until they have office, how become forfeited according to the rules of the said obtained. office, and it is reasonable the same indulgence should be extended to the people within the said district, as to the other citizens of this commonwealth, Be it enacted, That the owners of such surveys may, before the said first day of October one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, apply to and obtain from the register grants for the same upon paying the quitrents and composition due thereon in manner aforesaid, and on failure thereof the lands contained in such surveys shall be forfeited and may be granted in the same manner as other unappropriated lands within the said district. And any person possessing high lands within Pre-emption the said district to which any swamps, marshes, or sunken grounds are contiguous and not already ap- sunken propriated shall have the pre-emption of such swamps, grounds, in marshes or sunken grounds at the rate of twenty-five pounds by the hundred acres, until the said first day of October one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight: And if such person shall not obtain a grant for such swamps, marshes, or sunken grounds before that time, then any other person may enter on and obtain a grant for the same in like manner as is directed for other unappropriated lands within the said district.But nothing herein contained shall be construed or exSaving to tend to give liberty to any person to locate or obtain femes covert. a grant for any unappropriated swamps, marshes or sunken grounds Iving contiguous to the high land of any feme covert, infant, person not being compos mentis, or person out of the commonwealth, but such per in swamps, marshes, or Neck. &.c. Caveats en tered on Nor thern Neck, how proceed. ed in. Considera tion for land warrants on eastern wa ters, how payable. sons shall be allowed twelve months after the removal of their several disabilities for the pre-emption of such lands. And be it further enacted, That where any caveat hath been entered in the proprietor's office of the Northern Neck before the seventeenth day of October in the of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and year eighty-five, the person who entered such caveat shall, within twelve months next following, assign the causes thereof in the register's office, and proceed to prosecute the same, and on failure the same shall be taken and deemed dismissed, and a grant for the lands so caveated shall issue to the person, his assignees, or legal representatives, in whose favor the survey was made. And whereas the act passed at the last session of assembly, intitled "An act to dispose of the waste and unappropriated lands in the commonwealth of Virginia on the easteru waters," directs that a composition of twenty five pounds, for every hundred acres of the said lands should be paid by the person or persons who shall obtain a warrant for the same. Be it enacted, That from and after the passing of this act the composition aforesaid may be paid in auditors warrants or audited certificates, any thing in the said recited art to the contrary notwithstanding. Further provision for the erection of the district of Kentucky into an inde pendent state. CHAP. IV. An act making further provision for the erection of the district of Kentuckey into an independent state. WHEREAS it appears that the representatives elected in pursuance of the act, entitled, "An act concerning the erection of the district of Kentuckey into an independent state," have been hindred by unforeseen events from meeting at the time proposed, and determining the question referred to them; and it is cou sidered that no such determination can now take place within the time necessary for its receiving the assent of congress prior to the first day of June next, as required by the act under which the said representatives were elected. And whereas it continues to be the purpose of the general assembly, that the said district shall become an independant state, on the terms and conditions spesified in the act aforesaid, whenever the good people thereof shall so determine and the United States in congress shall thereof approve; Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That in the month of August next, and on the respective days and places of holding courts in the several counties within the said district, five representatives for each county 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 the county. The elections shall be conducted in like manner with the like promulgation of this act to the electors, and with the like penalties for neglect of duty in the officers, as were prescribed for the elections held under the act above recited. The convention shall be held at Danville on the third Monday of September ensuing, or whenever thereafter a sufficient number shall be assembled. 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 and other proper officers, to settle the proper rules of proceeding, to authorize any number of members 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 whether it is expedient for and be the will of the good people of the said district, that the same be erected into an independant state, on the terms and conditions specified in the act above recited: Provided, That no vote shall be considered as deciding this question either in the affirmative or negative, unless a majority of the whole number to be elected shall concur therein. And provided, That in case two thirds of the whole shall not assemble within fifteen days after the day apF 2 VOL. XII. pointed for the meeting, a decision in which a maje rity of the whole shall concur, shall be valid although the number present be less than two thirds of the whole. And be it further enacted, That in case the said convention shall approve of an erection of the said district. into an independant state, on the terms and conditions above referred to, they shall and may proceed to fix a day not later than the first day of January one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine, on which the authority of this commonwealth and of its laws under the exceptions, specified in the act above recited, shall cease and determine forever over the said district, and the articles specified in the said act shall become a solemn compact mutually binding on the parties, and unalterable by either without the consent of the other. Provided however, That prior to the fourth day of July one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight, the United States in congress shall assent to the erection of the said district into an independant state, shall release this commonwealth from all its foederal obligations arising from the said district, as being part thereof, and shall agree that the proposed state shall immediately after the day fixed as aforesaid, or at some convenient time future thereto, be admitted into the fœderal union. And to the end that no interval 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, and subsequent to the notified assent of congress to the proposed erection of the said district into a independent state, 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 such constitution. This act shall be transmitted by the executive to the delegates representing this state in congress, who are hereby instructed to use their endeavors to obtain from congress a speedy concur |