Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

it is just that the amount of the said taxes should be applied in such manner as to inhance the value of said lands: Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That Levi Todd, James Trotter, Henry Lee, John M'Dowell, John Hawkings, and James Garrard, gentlemen, or a majority of them, shall be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners for opening a road from the town of Lexington, in the county of Fayette, to the river known by the name of the Great Sandy, to the most convenient part thereof below the great forks. The said commissioners shall in the court of the counties in which they respectively reside, take an oath for the due execution of the trust hereby reposed in them, and shall moreover enter into bond, with security, in the penalty of one thousand pounds, payable to the governor and his successors for the use of the commonwealth, with condition that they will faithfully discharge the said trust. So soon as they, or a majority of them, have taken the said oaths and entered into the said bonds, they shall appoint a time and place of meeting, giving two months previous notice thereof in the Kentucky Gazette, and shall then and there publicly let to the lowest bidder, the opening the said road from Lexington to Great Sandy river: they shall take a bond in a sufficient penalty, with good security from the undertaker, that the said road shall be compleatly opened fit for the passage of waggons, within three years from the date of the said bond.

V. And be it further enacted, That George Clendinen, Henry Banks, and William Clendinen, gentlemen, or a majority of them, shall be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners for opening a road, from the Great Kanawa river to the Great Sandy river, beginning at the house of William Clendinen, in the county of Kanawa, and running to the place where the road from Lexington to the Great Sandy river terminates; having taken the same oaths, and entered into bond in the like manner, as the commissioners before mentioned, they shall appoint a time and place of meeting, giving previous notice thereof for two months, at the doors of the courthouses of the counties of Greenbrier and Kanawa, and shall then and there let publicly, to the lowest bidder, the opening of the said road, from the Great Kanawa river to the Great Sandy river, and shall take bonds and security of the undertaker, in

like manner as is herein before directed to be taken of the undertakers of the road from Lexington to the Great Sandy river. The undertakers of the road from Lexington, shall have power to contract with any person within the counties of Fayette and Bourbon, and the undertakers of the road from the Great Kanawa river, shall have power to contract with any person within the county of Kanawa for personal labour, supplies of money, or other things necessary for carrying on the said undertakings, and shall give certificates to the persons so contributing, for the amount of what has been furnished by them, which certificates, when countersigned by one or more of the said commissioners, the sheriffs of the said counties shall receive in payment of taxes due from the holders thereof, and they shall be allowed a credit therfor, in the settlement of their accounts for any taxes now due, or hereafter to become due, from any of the said counties: Provided always, That the certificates granted by the undertaker and commissioners of the road, from Lexington to Great Sandy river, shall not exceed the sum of three thousand pounds, and those granted by the undertaker and commissioners of the road from the Great Kanawa river, to the Great Sandy river, shall not exceed the sum of one thousand five hundred pounds. The sheriff's authorised by law to distrain for taxes now due, or which may become due in the said counties, shall furnish the said commissioners respectively, with an exact account thereof, and they shall not proceed to collect the same, until directed by the said commissioners in manner herein after directed, except that they shall receive from persons tendering the same, any of the certificates granted, and countersigned as before mentioned. If any person within either of the said counties of Fayette, Bourbon, or Kanawa, shall fail to contribute so much to the opening the said roads respectively, as will discharge the taxes that may be due from him, her, or them, it shall be lawful for the said commissioners to require the said sheriffs to distrain therefor, and the amount thereof when collected, shall be paid to the commissioners, and applied by them to the purposes aforesaid, and the sheriff's on a settlement of their accounts, shall have a credit for all sums so paid by them to the commissioners. If any sheriff shall fail to distrain for, and pay to the com

missioners the sums so required by them within sixty days after he shall be required to make distress, it shall be lawful for the court of the county to which such sheriff belongs, to give judgment against him therefor on the motion of the commissioners, provided he has ten days notice of such motion. So soon as the said commissioners shall have compleated the said roads, or expended the sums herein before directed to be applied to the opening the same, they shall direct the sheriffs of the said counties respectively, to proceed to collect all the taxes that shall then be due in the said counties, which shall be accounted for by the said sheriffs, and paid into the public treasury within six months thereafter, and in case of failure, the solicitor general shall proceed against them, in like manner as against other defaulting sheriffs. The said commissioners shall return to the auditor an exact account of the certificates granted by them, and of the several sums received by them from the sheriffs; and until such account be returned, no such certificates shall be received of any sheriff. All proceedings against the sheriffs of the said counties of Fayette, Bourbon, and Kanawha, shall be suspended until the said accounts shall be returned by the commissioners. The clerks of the said courts, shall return to the executive within six months after the same shall be taken, copies of the bonds entered into by the said commissioners, and certificates of their having taken the oaths herein directed to be administered to them: Every clerk failing so to do, shall forfeit fifty pounds to the use of the commonwealth, to be recovered on the motion of the solicitor general, in the general court or other superior court; provided each clerk hath ten days previous notice of such motion.Provided nevertheless, That nothing in this act shall be construed to affect the taxes due from that part of the county of Kanawha, which was heretofore a part of Greenbrier, and which may have been appropriated for opening a road from the town of Lewisburg, in the county of Greenbrier, to the falls of the Great Kanawha.

CHAP. LXVI.

An act to revive and amend an act, intituled, An act for opening and straightening certain public roads.

[Passed the 26th of December, 1788.]

I. WHEREAS the commissioners appointed by the act, intituled, "An act for opening and straightening Act for open. ing&straightcertain public roads," to view and fix on the most con roads,revived venient and direct way for opening a road from Fred-ening certain ericksburg, to the city of Richmond, could not perform and amended the same by the time limited in the said act for that purpose: Be it therefore enacted, That William Nelson, William F. Gray, Thomas Minor, Stapleton Crutchfield, William Pollard, John Garland, Miles Selden, and Thomas Prosser, gentlemen, or a majority of them, shall, on or before the first day of October next, do, and perform, what the former commissioners in the third section of the said act were required to do: Provided always, That the said commissioners shall make report of their proceedings to the next general assembly, and not to the county courts.

II. And whereas the act passed the last session of assembly, intituled, "An act to amend two acts of assembly, the one intituled, "An act for keeping certain roads in repair," the other "An act for opening and straightening certain public roads," requires the meetof ing of five commissioners to turn or alter any part the said roads, a number from their dispersed situation it is found difficult to collect, Be it therefore enacted, That any three of the said commissioners shall be sufficient to meet and view the road so proposed to be their report, the court shall be auturned, and upon thorised to establish the same, or order a review, as to them shall seem right; and in either case, if the alteration shall be objected to by the proprietor, or his agent, through whose land the said road is to run, the like proceedings shall be observed so far as may be necessary to entitle the proprietor to a compensation as prescribed by the act "Concerning public roads."

[ocr errors]

R 4

District

lished.

CHAP. LXVII.

An act establishing district courts, and for regulating the general

court.

[Passed the 22d of December, 1788.)

I. WHEREAS the delays inseperable from the present constitution of the general court may be often courts stab equal to a denial of justice, the expences of the criminal prosecutions are unnecessarily burthensome to the citizens of this commonwealth, violations of the laws frequently pass with impunity from the difficulty with which witnesses attend from great distances, and the authority of those laws would be more diffusively promulgated by the establishment of district courts: Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That this commonwealth, except the district of Kentucky, shall be divided into districts, and a superior court holden in each, in the manner, and at the times and places bereinafter mentioned, that is to say: The counties of Henrico, Hanover, Chesterfield, Goochland, and Powhatan, shall compose one district, and a court shall be bolden for the same at the capitol, in the city of Richmond, on the first day of April, and the first day of September, in every year: The counties of James-City, Charles City, New-Kent, Surry, Gloucester, York, Warwick, and Elizabeth-City, shall compose another district, and a court shall be holden for the same at the city of Williamsburg, in the former capitol, on the twenty-ninth day of April, and the twenty-ninth day of September, in every year: The counties of Richmoud, Westmorelaad, Lancaster, and Northumberland, shall compose another district, and a court shall be holden for the same at Northumberland courthouse, on the first day of April, and the first day of September, in every year: The counties of Essex, Middlesex, King and Queen, and King William, shall compose another district, and a court shall be holden for the same, at King and Queen courthouse, on the fifteenth day of April, and the fifteenth day of September, in every year; The counties of Spotsylvania, Caroline, King George, Stafford, Orange, and Culpeper, shall

« AnteriorContinuar »