Penalty for concealing deserted sea. men. Mutinous and refractory conduct in seamen. amongst them by the number of miles they shall respectively go, in the most direct way, to ascertain which, a certificate of the whole distance from the place where he was apprehended to the port the ship or vessel shall be at, shall be endorsed by the justice of the peace on his warrant; and if the master or commander shall refuse to pay the money to the persons entitled to it, or to others authorized by their orders to receive it, the naval officer of the port with whom the warrant and orders shall be left, shall not clear the ship or vessel out before it shall be paid to him for their use, unless the master or commander shall make it appear, by the oath of himself, or of some other on board, that the seaman had not been returned, or had been discharged before he was apprehended; and the master or commander paying the money may deduct it out of the wages becoming due to the seaman. A constable wilfully or negligently suffering a seamen, not being discharged from his ship or vessel, who shall have been committed by warrant of a justice of the peace to his custody, to escape, unless he shall recover him, and proceed to deliver him as the warrant required, shall, upon complaint made to a justice of the peace, which he shall be summoned to answer, pay the reward due to the person who apprehended the seaman, and to the constables by whom he had before been conducted, and shall moreover pay the sum of five pounds to the master or commander of the ship or vessel, to be recovered with costs, by petition to the county, city, or borough court. A person concealing a deserted seaman, shall pay the sum of three pounds to the master or commander of the ship or vessel to which he shall belong, to be recovered with costs. The master or commander of a ship or vessel, who shall entertain, employ, or hire a seaman, belonging to a ship or vessel owned by a citizen of the commonwealth, before he shall have been discharged, shall pay to the owner the sum of twenty pounds, to be recovered with costs, by action of debt. Two justices of the peace may hear a complaint made to them of any mutinous or refractory behaviour in a seaman or waterman, and causing the parties to appear before them at a convenient time, in some place near the ship or vessel they shall belong to, with their witnesses, may adjudge the accused, if he shall be proved to have stricken, or to have offered to correction. strike the master or other superior officer, or to have threatened to do any bodily hurt to him, or to have peremptorily refused, without just cause, to obey his commands, to forfeit to the owner such part of the wa ges due to the seaman or waterman as will make reasonable amends for the injury and damage, not exceeding the sum of five pounds, and if satisfaction cannot be obtained by other means, may award execution for the amount of the forfeiture, or so much thereof as shall exceed the wages due, against his goods and chattels. But seamen or watermen shall not be obliged Accommodato serve on board any ship or vessel if such sufficient tions. wholesome victuals and drink, and convenient accommodations, as are customary in the merchant service, shall not be provided for and allowed to them. A master who shall correct immoderately, or maim a sea- Immoderate man under his command, may be brought before any justice of the peace by his warrant, and be compelled to give security for his good behaviour, and shall moreover be liable to the action of the party injured for damages. The master or commander of a ship or ves- Penalty for sel, who shall put and leave on shore any sick or disa- puting sick bled seaman, not entitled to his discharge by their seamen on contract, without providing for his cure and maime-shore, with nance, shall forfeit twenty pounds, to be recovered out providing with costs, by action of debt, one half to him who will sue, to his own use, and the other half to the use of the county in which the seaman shall be left, and applied towards his cure and inaintenance. The master or commander of a ship or vessel, discharging a seaman discharge. from his service, shall sign and deliver to him a certificate thereof, and refusing so to do, when it shall be required, shall pay the sum of five pounds to the seaman, to be recovered with costs, by action of debt.— This act shall commence and be in force from and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven. or disabled for them. Certificate of VOL. XII From Rev. Bills of 1779, ch. XX. Descents, Course of. None can in. herit, except children, un less in being at intestate's death. CHAP. LX. An act directing the course of descents. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That henceforth when any person having title to any real estate of inheritance, shall die intestate as to such estate, it shall descend and pass in parency to his kindred male and female in the following course, that is to say: II. To his children or their descendants, if any there be: III. If there be no children nor their desendants, then to his father. IV. If there be no father, then to his mother, brothers and sisters; and their descendants, or such of them as there be: V. If there be no mother, nor brother, nor sister, nor their descendants, then the inheritance shall be divided into two moieties, one of which shall go to the paternal, the other to the maternal kindred, in the following course, that is to say: VI. First to the grandfather: VII. If there be no grandfather, then to the grandmother, uncles and aunts on the same side, and their descendants, or such of them as there be: VIII. If there be no grandmother, uncle nor aunt, nor their descendants, then to the great grandfathers, or great grandfather if there be but one. IX. If there be no great grandfather, then to the great grandmothers, or great grand mother if there be but one, and the brothers and sisters of the grandfathers and grandmothers, and their descendants, or such of them as there be: X. And so on in other cases without end; passing to the nearest lineal male ancestors, and for the want of them to the lineal female ancestors in the same degree, and the descendants of such male and female lineal anCestors, or to such of them as there be. XI. But no right in the inheritance shall accrue to any person whatever, other than to children of the intestate, unless they be in being and capable in law to take as heirs at the time of the intestates death. whole to ra ternal. XII. And where for want of issue of the intestate, faternal and of father, mother, brothers and sisters, and their kind, the descendants, the inheritance is before directed to go by ternal, if no moieties to the paternal and maternal kindred, if there maternal, te should be no such kindred on the one part, the whole whole to pashall go to the other part: And if there be no kindred none of eieither on the one part or the other, the whole shall go ther, to husto the wife or husband of the intestate. And if the wife or husband be dead, it shall go to her or his kindred, band dead. in the like course as if such wife or husband had survived the intestate and then died, entitled to the estate. band or wife. If wife or hus take. XIII. And in the cases before mentioned where the Whole & half inheritance is directed to pass to the ascending and col-blood, how to lateral kindred of the intestate, if part of such collaterals be of the whole blood to the intestate, and other part of the half blood only, those of the half blood shall inherit only half so much as those of the whole blood: But if all be of the half blood, they shall have whole portions, only giving to the ascendants (if there be any) double portions. XIV. And where the children of the intestate, or his mother, brothers, and sisters, or his grandmother, un- Per capita cles, and aunts, or any of his female lineal ancestors living, with the children of his deceased lineal ancestors male and female in the same degree come into the partition, they shall take per capita, that is to say by persons; and where a part of them being dead, and a part living, the issue of those dead have right to per stirpes. partition, such issue shall take per stirpes, or by stocks, that is to say, the share of their deceased parent. XV. And where any of the children of the intestate, Advance or their issue, shall have received from the intestate in ments. XVI. In making title by descent it shall be no bar Aliens, deto a demandant that any ancestor through whom he de- fcent through rives his descent from the intestate, is or hath been an alien. Bastards also shall be capable of inheriting or Bastards, of transmitting inheritance on the part of their mother, through mo. in like manner as if they had been lawfully begotten ofthers. such mother. Bastards le. XVII. Where a man having by a woman one or more children, shall afterwards intermarry with such gitimated. Commence. woman, such child or children, if recognized by him, shall be thereby legitimated. The issue also in marriages deemed nuli in law shall nevertheless be legiti mate. XVIII. This act shall commence and be in force from ment of act. and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven. From Re.v Bills of 1779, ch. XXI. Wills of lands CHAP. LXI. An act concerning wills; the distribution of intestales estates; and the duty of executors and administra tors. I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That every person aged twenty-one years or upwards, being of sound mind, and not a married woman, shall have power, at his will and pleasure, by last will and testament in writing, to devise all the estate, right, title, and In writing. interest, in possession, reversion, or remainder, which he hath, or at the time of his death shall have, of, in, or to lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or annuities, or rents charged upon issuing out of them; so as such How attested. last will and testament be signed by the testator, or by some other person in his preseuce, and by his direction; and moreover, if not wholly written by himself, be attested by two or more credible witnesses subscribing their names in his presence. Saving dower of widows. Revocation II. Saving to the widows of testators, their dower in such lands, tenements, rents, or annuities, according to the laws, which shall not be prejudiced by any devise thereof. III. No devise so made, or any clause thereof, shall of such wills. be revocable, but by the testator's destroying, cancelling, or obliterating the same, or causing it to be done Wills made in his presence, or by a subsequent will, codicil, or declaration in writing, made as aforesaid. last will and testament, made when the testator had no when testa tor had no child. But every |