females now mar Property of § 2. The real and personal property, and the rents issues and profits thereof of any female now married shall not be ried secur- subject to the disposal of her husband; but shall be her sole and separate property as if she were a single female except so far as the same may be liable for the debts of her husband heretofore contracted. ed. rece vedby Property §3. It shall be lawful for any married female to receive, gift, grant by gift, grant devise or bequest, from any person (other than or devise her husband and hold to her sole and separate use, as if she secured. Marriage contracts. May take, hold and were a single female, real and personal property, and the rents, issues and profits thereof, and the same shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband, nor be liable for his debts. §4. All contracts made between persons in contemplation of marriage shall remain in full force after such marriage takes place. CHAP. 201. AN ACT to enable Jane Mary Jauncey, James Jauncey and Passed April 7, 1848, by a two-third vote. The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: § 1. Jane Mary Jauncey, James Jauncey and William Jauncey, children of James and Theressina Jauncey, are real estate. hereby declared and acknowledged to be capable of taking convey and holding, conveying, devising, demising and disposing of any real estate in the state of New-York, whereof their father, James Jauncey, deceased, died seised, and neither their title thereto, nor their enjoyment of the said property during their minority, by their guardian, Theressina Jauncey, shall be in any way affected or impaired by reason of her alienage, and all the right, title and interest of the people of this state in and to the said real estate are hereby released to the said Jane Mary, James and William Jauncey, as tenants in common in fee. § 2. Nothing herein contained shall prejudice the rights of any person, acquired as a creditor or as a bona fide purchaser, or by descent before this act shall take effect. 3. This act shall take effect immediately. 1 CHAP. 202. AN ACT to incorporate the Long Island Canal and Navigation Company. Passed April 8, 1818. The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: created. § 1. Henry W. Titus, James I. Shipman, Abraham G. Corporat'n Thompson, Junr., Walter Scudder, Nathaniel Miller, Henry Floyd Jones, John L. Norton, Henry Gardiner, Josiah P. Howell, and all such other persons as may associate themselves with them, and their successors are hereby created a body politic and corporate, by the name of "The Long Island Canal and Navigation Company." tions to § 2. The capital stock of said corporation shall be three Subscriphundred thousand dollars, to be divided into shares of fifty stock. dollars, and subscription books for said stock shall be opened under the direction of Henry W. Titus, Henry Floyd Jones, Abraham G. Thompson, Junr., Walter Scudder, or any two of them, as commissioners for that purpose, at such place or places and on such day or days, in the city of New York, and in the counties of Kings, Queens and Suffolk, as they shall appoint, giving fourteen days notice of each time and place of meeting in at least one newspaper published in each of said counties and in said city, and said subscription books shall be opened within one year after the passage of this act. In case a greater amount than three hundred thousand dollars shall be subscribed, the said commissioners shall distribute the stock in such manner as a majority of them shall deem most advantageous to the public interests; but in case the capital stock of said corporation shall not be subscribed, then the said commissioners shall be authorised to re-open the said books at such other times and places and in such manner and after such notice as a majority of them shall direct. The said commissioners shall at the time of any subscription, require the payment by the person or persons subscribing, of five dollars on each share of stock so subscribed, and unless the same shall be paid the subscription shall be invalid. to be employed. § 3. The said corporation are authorised and empowered Stock how to employ their capital stock in surveying, constructing, navigating and maintaining a line of canals and water communication, 1. From Gravesend bay in the county of Kings, to Jamaica bay; 2. From said Jamaica bay across Rockaway in the county of Queens, to the Great South bay ; Operations commenc ed. 3. From the eastern end of said Great South bay across Quogue in the county of Suffolk, to South Hampton bay; and if required to promote the interests of the public and of said corporation, they are authorised to connect said South Hampton bay with Mecock bay and across Canoe Place with Peconic bay in the county of Suffolk, as well as to make lateral canals to either or both the villages of Jamaica and Hempstead in the county of Queens; and in excavating the ground, deepening the shoals and straightening the channels in any of the said bays or intermediate places; which said canals shall be at least thirty feet wide at the bottom and fifty feet wide at the surface and three feet in depth at common low tide. § 4. The said corporation may commence their operations when to be whenever fifty thousand dollars shall be subscribed and paid in, and they are authorised to employ such portion of their capital as may be necessary, in purchasing, building or hiring dredging machines, steam and freight boats, for constructing and navigating said canals, and whenever the whole or any part of the said canals shall be completed, they are empowered to demand, collect and receive from every person or persons wishing to navigate the same, such rates of toll as they shall from time to time ordain and establish; the same to be subject to alteration and revision by the canal board, but nothing in this section shall be so construed as to prevent the navigation of said canals by boats and vessels other than those owned or employed by said corporation, on the payment of tolls for the use of said canals, nor the navigation of any part of said bays free of toll. directors. Election of § 5. The said line of canals, capital stock, property, effects and government of the same shall be under the management and direction of nine directors, of whom there shall be located two in each of the counties of Kings, Queens and Suffolk. Said directors shall be elected by the stockholders within sixty days after fifty thousand dollars shall have been subscribed, fourteen days' notice being given of such election, and shall hold their offices until the first Tuesday in June, in the next succeeding year after such election; on the said first Tuesday in June, and annually thereafter, there shall be an election for nine directors, who shall hold their offices for one year, and until others shall be chosen in their places, six of whom shall always be located as aforesaid: the first election shall be held under the superintendence and inspection of Henry W. Titus, Henry Floyd Jones, and Abraham G. Thompson, Jr., and every subsequent election shall be held under the inspection of three stockholders, not being directors, who shall be previously appointed by the directors. All elections shall be by ballot, and a plurality of votes shall constitute a choice. In case of an equal number of votes for any one or more directors, the remainder of the directors shall by ballot determine which shall be entitled to a seat in the board of direction. Every stockholder shall be entitled to one vote, personally or by proxy, on every share held by him for thirty days immediately previous to such election; the directors so chosen, shall elect, as soon as may be, at or after the first meeting, and every annual meeting thereafter, one of their number as president. In case of the death, resignation or absence of the president, the board of directors shall have the power of appointing a president pro tempore. Saving §6. In case it should at any time happen that an election of directors shall not be made on any day, when pursuant to clause. this act it ought to have been made, the said corporation shall not for that cause be dissolved, but such election may be held at any other time, directed by the by-laws of the said corporation, within sixty days after the day on which it should have been held. §7. The board of directors shall have power to make all By-laws. necessary rules, regulations and by-laws, for regulating the time and manner of paying in the stock subscribed; for declaring the forfeiture of previous instalments by the non-payment of subsequent ones, after giving thirty days' notice of demand of payment; for regulating the manner of voting by proxy; for directing elections to fill vacancies that may occur between the annual elections; for regulating the time and manner of declaring dividends of their profits; for the regulation of the conduct of officers and agents; for the appointment of as many officers and agents as they may deem requisite, and to determine the amount of their compensation; and generally to do all other acts they may deem expedient, for the purposes of carrying into effect the objects of the corporation, and not contrary to the provisions of this act, or any law of this state. 8. No transfer of the stock of the corporation shall be Transfers. valid or effectual, unless the same shall be registered in a book or books to be kept by the directors for that purpose. &c. may be purchased. 9. The said corporation may purchase and hold all such Real estatereal estate, lands and waters subject to the free navigation of said bays by all persons as may be necessary for constructing, maintaining and repairing their canals and may by their engineers and agents enter upon any land or water for the purpose of making surveys, a just compensation therefor being first made to the owners thereof, and may by their engineers or agents enter upon, take possession of and use all such real estate, lands and waters as may be necessary for the construction and maintenance of their canals and the accommodations required appertaining thereto, after paying to the owners all the damages they shall sustain thereby to be ascertained as hereinafter provided, and may also receive, hold and take all such voluntary grants and donation of real obtained. estate, lands and waters as may be made to the said corporation, to aid in the construction, maintenance and accommodation of said canals; but all real estate, lands and waters thus entered upon, which are not donations, shall be purchased by the said corporation of the owner or owners of the same, at a price to be mutually agreed upon between them; and whenever the said corporation shall become possessed of and own any real estate, lands or waters, that may be unnecessary for them to retain for the purposes aforesaid, it shall be lawful for them to occupy, alien and convey the same by deeds, on such terms as they shall deem expedient. Lands, &c. § 10. Whenever the real estate, lands and waters necessary hood for the purposes of said canals, cannot be obtained by voluntary donation or purchase, and in case of disagreement between the said corporation and the owner or owners of any of said real estate, lands and waters, as to the price to be paid therefor, the said corporation or any owner or party aggrieved or interested, may present to the county judge of the county in which such real estate, lands and waters may lie, a petition setting forth the necessity or design of taking any such real estate, lands or waters for the purposes of said canals and the failure to obtain the same, or liquidate and adjust by agreement the compensation to be paid therefor, and the name and residence of each owner, if known, and if not known the fact of such names being unknown, and the means that have been taken to ascertain the same, together with a map, plan or profile of the real estate, land or waters thus required or proposed to be taken, and of the said canal, and praying that a jury of appraisers be appointed. The said judge shall thereupon direct reasonable notice, written or printed, of not less than three weeks, to be given to the owner or owners of any such lands, real estate or waters of the time of drawing such jury, which shall be at the clerk's office in the county where such real estate, lands or waters are situated; such written or printed notice to be served upon such owner or owners if known, or in case of absence from their place of residence, to be left or directed to them through the post office at their usual place of residence, and if such owner or his place of residence is not known and cannot be ascertained, to be put up in some conspicuous place on the premises to be appraised, and published as said judge shall direct, setting forth the time and place of drawing such jury; and upon due proof of such notice and hearing the parties, or such of them as may attend and object to the regularity of the proceedings on the part of said corporation, such judge, together with the clerk of said county, shall draw from the grand jury box of the county, the names of twelve jurors, in the opinion of such judge competent and disinterested, who, by an order to be entered in the common rule |