“An act to amend and reduce the several acts of as⚫sembly for ascertaining certain taxes and duties, and for establishing a permanent revenue, into one act," and that all sheriffs, collectors, and others authorized by law to receive monies of the citizens of this commonwealth, to be paid into the public treasury for taxes or otherwise, be directed to receive the same at the rates at which coin is hereby declared to be receivable at the treasury: Provided nevertheless, That this act shall continue, and be in force, until the end of the next session of assembly, and no longer. Preamble. James river extend the shares; and CHAP. LII. An act to amend an act, intituled, An act for clearing and improving the navigation of James river. 1. WHEREAS by the act, intituled "An act for clearing and improving the navigation of James river, it is among other things provided that the first subscriptions should not exceed the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, and that no toll should be demanded, except in a particular case, before the said river should be rendered capable of being navigated in dry seasons by vessels drawing one foot of water at the from the highest place praticable to the Great Falls; And whereas it hath been represented to the general assembly, that it may be necessary to extend the sum to be subscribed, and to put the depth of the canals in the discretion of the company, and the point to which the navigation is directed to reach, before the demand of the tolls, is by being too vague, a discouragement to adventurers: II. Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, company may That it shall be lawful for the said company, at any general meeting, to extend the shares, so as not to exceed one hundred in addition to those already subscribed, and to proportion the depth of the water in the canals to the depth of the water in the river in dry seasons, reduce depth of canal. highest pome III. And be it further enacted, That Crow's ferry, Crow's ferry at the mouth of Loony's creek, shall be forever taken declared the and deemed to be the highest place practicable within navigation. the meaning of the above recited act. And whereas, it may be found expedient for the said company to borrow money to answer the purposes of their institution, IV. Be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for Company may the president and directors to give an interest of six per borrow mo centum upon all sums of money that shall be lent to them ney. for the carrying on of the work. CHAP. LIII. An act to extend the operation of an act, intituled, An act concerning escheators, to the several counties in the Northern Neck. in the North I. WHEREAS the act of assembly, intituled "An Escheators to act concerning escheators," does not in its operation be appointed extend to the counties in the Northern-neck, and it is necessary that escheators should be appointed in the several counties in that district: II. Be it therefore enacted, That the aforesaid act of assembly shall be carried into execution, and be in full force in the several counties in the Northern-neck. And the court of each of the said counties is hereby required to recommend to the governor and council, some proper person to be commissioned escheator within such county, on or before first day of June next; and in case of the failure of such recommendation, it shall be lawful, and the governor is hereby required, to appoint and commission, as soon as may be, an escheator within each of the said counties, who shall be a resident of such county, ern Neck. Lincoln coun CHAP. LIV An act for dividing the county of 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. that is to say: So much of the said county bounded by Boundaries. Court days. 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 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 * Erroneously numbered XLIV, in the original. 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. Prorided always. That the appointment of a place for holding courts, 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 mits of the new counties. From Rev. An act concerning election of members of general assembly. Bills of 1779, ch. H. senatorswhen Delegatesand I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That the to be elected. 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, 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. When assem. bly to meet. Right of suf frage. 11. 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 |