deserted Land be denyed of having the first grant he making his Rights appear when he Petitions for the Land And whereas the former Act concerning deserted Lands reserved to the first taker up his Rights to take up Land in another place It is here Enacted That in regard he hath had the benefits of his Rights held the Land in possession might make use of the Timber without contradiction and yet neither pays the King any Rents nor suffers him to admit any new Tenant that the Rights aswell as the Land shall be forfeited and the Grantee made incapable of using any of them afterwards Provided that any person having taken Upland deserted before the making of this Act in November 1652. shall not by vertue of this Act be outed of possession LXX Seating upon others Dividents WHereas divers Suits have risen about Seating ignorantly upon other mens Lands for desiding the same Be it enacted that if any person whatsoever hath built or seated upon any Lands supposed his own but proving by a Just Survey to belong to another the charge of such building Seating or Cleering shall by twelve men upon their Oaths be indifferently valued and the consideration by the said Twelve men so adjudged shall be paid by the owner of the Land to the first Seater that was at the charge But if that shall amount to more then the said Owner is willing to disburse then the said Twelve men shall make a valuation of what the Land was worth before the Seating thereof which the Seater shall accordingly pay to the true Owner Provided alwayes That no consideration shall be allowed for Building or Cleering to any person that shall obstinately persist after lawful warning given him to desist LXXI Not to Shoot or Range upon other mens Lands WHereas the Rights and Interests of the Inhabitants are very much infringed by the hunting shooting of divers men upon their Neighbours Dividends contrary to the Priviledges granted them by their Pattents whereby many Injuries do dayly happen to the owners of the said Land Be it Enacted That if any Planter or other shall hunt or shoot within the limits of anothers Dividend without leave first obtained from the Proprietor he or they so offending shall forfeit for every such Trespass Four hundred pounds of Tobacco one half to the Owner of the Land and the other half to Publique uses Notwithstanding it shall be lawful for any person or persons to hunt or shoot upon any Dividend of Land not planted or seated though taken up without restraint or penalty Provided also That it shall be lawful for any person that hath shot any game without the limits of another mans Land to pursue the same into any mans Dividend and freely to carry away the same as also to seek or fetch his own Cattle or Hoggs off of any mans Land first giving notice to the owner of the Land of his intent and of the time he intends to stay upon it to the end that the said owner may if he think fit send one to see what Cattel or Hogs he drives away Provided alwayes that it shall be lawful for the Governour to Commissionate some Gentlemen to give licence to persons to hunt wild Hogs upon any mans Land without their Fenced Plantations LXXII Lands five years in possession WHereas sundry Suits and Controversies have been and dayly do arise about Claims and Titles to Lands to the great impoverishing of divers persons For Remedy whereof and for the better establishing the Inhabitants in the Rights and Possessions hereafter Be it Enacted That all persons whatsoever that have or do pretend any Title to any Land shall prosecute their Claims before the said Land hath been peaceably enjoyed Five years otherwise it shall be a good plea in Bar for the Possessour of such Land Claimed or Possessed to affirm He hath had peaceable Possession without Claim by Commencement or Prosecution of Suit full five years proof whereof shall be a sufficient Confirmation to the Possessor and shall conclude the Claim and Title of the pretender And this Act to extend to all such as have not prosecuted their Title within five years since the 6 day of October 1646. Alwayes provided that the limitation of five years in this Act expressed shall not bar Orphans nor Widows under Covert nor persons out of the Countrey nor persons of unsound mind But that the said Orphans shall have five years after they be of Age Women five years free from Coverture viz. If she marry again before her five years are expired and her husband omit to make Claim his omission shall be a good bar against him but if the Woman survive she shall have so long time allowed her to Claim in as will make up the first time of her freedom Five years Persons of unsound mind five years after their recovery from their impotence Persons out of the Countrey five years after their Arrival in the Countrey Provided they come in within two years after the Title to the Land became due in which times if they Claim not as aforesaid to be utterly barred for ever For otherwise the expectation of Heirs out of England where there is none born here must in a short time leave the greatest part of the Countrey unseated and unpeopled no man knowing how or of whom either to purchase or take Lease LXXIII Against Fraudulent Conveyances BE it enacted and confirmed That no person or persons whatsoever shall pass over by Conveyance or otherwise any part of his Estate whether Lands Goods or Cattel whereby his Creditours not having notice thereof might be defrauded of their just Debts unless such Conveyance or other Deeds be acknowledged before the Governour and Council at the General-Court or before the Justices at the County-Courts and there Registred in a Book for that purpose within six moneths after such Alienation And whoever shall make over or alienate any part of his Estate otherwise then is here expressed the same shall not be accompted valid in Law nor shall it bar any Creditor by seizing the same by Law for satisfaction of the Debt the Property of the Estate not being legally vested in any but the first Vendour And it is further Enacted That any Conveyance made and acknowledged and recorded shall not be held good in Law against any Creditours or former Purchasers until four moneths after such Acknowledgment made and recorded in which time the Creditours or former Purchasers may shew for what cause the said Conveyance is to be accompted Fraudulent but if none appear within the said four moneths after the first Acknowledgment in Court then the Sale shall be for ever after good against all other Claimers or Pretenders whatsoever unless such as pretend to overthrow the first sellers Title in whom only five years possession can bar Provided that this Act shall not extend to such persons who for satisfaction of just Debts shall make a Bill of Sale of their Estates or any part thereof and deliver
have purchased and hold their Lands by no other Titles then such sales which can be of no validity against the claim of the King whom no time can prescribe and to whom if an Heir appear not the Land must of necessity devolve And if the King should at any time give express Order to an Escheater to make inquiry into the Titles we hold by the said Escheater cannot by vertue of his Office but find all such Lands for the King which we Francis Morison and Thomas Ludwell who are at present intrusted by his Majesties Treasurer to make composition for all Lands so Escheated to his Majesty taking into our serious consideration and out of our tender care of many poor men who by the loss of Lands thus perhaps dearly purchased and honestly payd for and out of our sense of the many inconveniences and great damages would fall upon them by being ousted out of their Possessions by the severity of a too rigorous Escheator and that on the other side we might not seem to debarr his Majesty of his just Rights we have thought it convenient to propose a certain Rule for Compositions for all Lands held by any pretended Right two years by which while the power is in our hands we shall proceed and if the Assembly think it a favour we shall joyn with them making it our request to Major Norwood his Majesties Treasurer to get his Majesty to confine them that no succeeding Escheator may at his pleasure rigorously exceed these our moderate and reasonable Demands 1. We concede that any person having been two years in possession of any Land that ought to have been vested in his Majesty by Escheat shall pay for his Composition but one Hundred Pounds of Tobacco for every fifty acres besides the Fees for finding the Office and drawing the Conveyance 2. That every person having been so in possession two years as aforesaid shall have Eight Months time to petition for and make their Composition but if they defer it longer and another sue for it and obtain it they can impute the blame to nothing but their own neglect 3. That where there is a Widdow she shall enjoy the Land of her Husband during her life and be admitted in the first place to make her Composition for the Fee-simple in case she signifie her desire within the time aforesaid That all Lands escheated before the two years aforesaid the person concerned shall pay for his Composition as aforesaid but all Lands which shall hereafter lapse or which have lapsed within the two years last past the Composition to be made for with those by his Majesties Treasurer appointed and authorized thereunto and that the Widdow be admitted in the first place she making her claim within Eight Months according to the Proposition abovesaid XIX Courts WHereas the name of Quarter-Courts is altogether unsuitable to the nature of those Courts held by the Governour and Council both in respect there are but three of those Courts in the year as also because they are not equally distributed in the Quarters of the Year September and November being too neer and March too long from them to admit of that Title Be it therefore enacted That the said Courts be no longer stiled Quarter-Courts but that they be henceforth called General-Courts a name more suitable to the nature of them as being places where all persons and causes have generally audience and receive determination Whereas the Acts of Assembly already made are very defective in prescribing the Rules to be observed in the proceedings both in those General and the particular County-Courts for want whereof many errors are committed the respects due to the Courts so nearly representing His Majesties sacred Person by the clamorous unmannerliness of the people lost and the Order Gravity and Decorum which should manifest the authority of a Court in the Court it self neglected And in regard the long omission of those hugely material though in themselves little things of form hath caused all things still to continue in the first disorders It hath appeared necessary to this present Grand Assembly to set down the Rules and Forms themselves for the beginning continuance and proceedings in the said Courts as followeth And it is therefore enacted That the General-Courts begin and continue as followeth viz. General Courts to begin and continue That March-Court begin the Twentieth of March if it be not Saturday or Sunday and then the Munday following and hold eighteen dayes not accounting Sundays in the number That September-Court begin the Twentieth of September if it be not Saturday or Sunday and then to begin the Munday following and hold Twelve dayes not accompting Sundayes in the number That November-Court begin the Twentieth of November if it be not Saturday or Sunday and then to begin the Munday after and hold twelve dayes not accounting Sundayes in the number That Adjournments of the said Courts be alwayes avoided and that they begin precisely upon the day that all persons knowing the day of the return of the Writs may accordingly give their attendance Stile how entred That the Stile of the Court be entred thus At a General Court held at James-City the twentieth of _____ by His Majesties Governour and Council in the _____ year of the Raign of our Soveraign Lord Charles the Second by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. and in the year of our Lord God _____ present Insert the name of the Governour and Council Silence commanded Then let the Cryer or under-Sheriff make Proclamation and say O Yes O Yes O Yes silence is commanded in the Court while His Majesties Governour and Council are sitting upon pain of Imprisonment Suitors to appear After Silence commanded let the Cryer make Proclamation saying All manner of persons that have any thing to do at this Court draw neer and give your attendance and if any one have any plaint to enter or suit to prosecute let them come forth and they shall be heard When silence is thus commanded and Proclamation made upon calling the Docket the Cryer shall call for the Plaintiff Calling the Plaintiff A. B. Come forth and prosecute thy Action against C. D. or else thou wilt be nonsuite and the Plaintiff putting in his Declaration the Cryer shall call for the Defendant Calling for the Defendant C. D. come forth and save thee and thy Bail or else thou wilt forfeit thy Recognizance For proceedings in the said Courts Warrants to be issued by the Clerks XX. Actions to be Proportioned BE it Enacted That Warrants be issued by the Clerks of the General Courts and the said Clerk so proportion the number of his Actions that there be for each day Twenty and that until there be Twenty Actions entred for the first day no Warrant issue for the second and then Twenty for the second before any issue for the third and so proportionably Twenty per day for so many days as there are
Child Administers the Surplusage after Debts paid and the funeral charge according to the quality of the person allowed for shall be equally divided between the Widdow and Children viz. one full third of the personal Estate to the Widdow and the other two Thirds among the Children if any of which dye before it come to age his proportion to be devided among the surviving Children And whereas It hath been the frequent evil practice of Administrators assoon as they have obtained an Order to Administer to Act as Administrators by vertue of that Order without giving security or taking out their Commissions so that the Estate being imbezelled away no Accompt can be given thereof Be it therefore Enacted That who ever pretends to Administer upon any Estate shall bring to the Court sufficient security before the Order shall be granted and an Order thus obtained legally by giving such security to be truly accomptable to bring in a true Inventory and to perform such things as the Administrators by Law are enjoyned shall not at any time after be reversed unless the party that obtained the same dye before he hath given an Accompt of the Estate and obtained his Quietus In which case the Court is impowred to grant the Administration of that Estate so not accompted for to some other person who may by vertue thereof call his Heirs Executors or Administrators of the former Administrators to Accompt who shall pay out of the said deceased Admistrators Estate all such debts as shall be found due to the Estate he Administred upon in the first place LXVI Concerning Orphans COncerning Orphans Estates be it enacted That all Wills and Testaments be firm and inviolable unless the Executors or Overseers do refuse to execute the Trust reposed in them by the Testator In which case the Court may appoint others to Act according to the Will but if the said Will be so made that no person will undertake the managing of the Estate or Education of the Orphans according to the Tenour of it then that the Estate by the appointment of the Court shall be managed according to the Rules set down for the ordering the estate of persons Intestate as followeth First That no Accompt be allowed for Dyet Clothes Physick or else against any Orphans Estate but they to be Educated and provided for by the interest of the Estate and Increase of their Stock according to the Proportion of their Estates if it will bear it But if the Estate be so mean and inconsiderable that it will not extend to a free Education Then it is Enacted That such Orphans shall be bound Apprentices to some Handi-craft Trade until one and Twenty years of age except some Kinsman or Relation will maintain them for the Interest of the small Estate they have without diminution of the principal which whether great or small alwayes to be delivered to the Orphan at the years appointed by Law That all Cattel Horses and Sheep be returned in kind by the Guardian according to Age and Number when as he received them And because several had before the first making of this Act Estates of Orphans in their hands which they kept for the Male-increase and giving the yearly Accompt of the Augmentation or Diminution of the Orphans Stock which by the carelesness or wickedness of the Guardians was usually consumed before they came to age and disputes thereupon arise in the several Courts how such persons should be proceeded with and Accompts of Orphans Estates how to be given them It is hereby declared That all persons possessed of Orphans Stocks before the first making this Act shall be bound to deliver to the Orphan when he comes to age such and so many of any kind as he was possest of when he gave his Accompt to the next Orphans Court succeeding the publication thereof That all Place and Money be preserved and delivered in kind according to the weight and quantity that other Houshold-stuff and Lumber be apprized in Money and the value thereof paid by the Guardian to the Orphan when he comes to age in the Countrey Commodities at the price Currant as it shall be worth at the time in the place where the Orphan Estate is managed That the Court take able and sufficient security for Orphans Estates and enquire yearly of the security and if the Court see cause to have it changed and called in and placed as the Court shall think fit the said Court to enquire also whether Orphans be kept maintained and educated according to their Estates and if they find any notorious defect to remove the Orphans to other Guardians And also for those that are bound Apprentices to change their Masters if they use them rigorously or neglect to teach them their Trades That no more be allowed to Guardians for Collecting of Debts due to any Estate then ten in the hundred the usual allowance of Merchants to their Factors and Attorneys That Thirty pounds of Tobacco per day be allowed to each Apprizet for Apprizement of any Estate if they will take it and no more That no allowance be made by the Court of Excessive Funeral expences but that a Regulation thereof be made according to the Proportion of the Estate and the Quality of the Person LXVII Orphans-Land not to be aliened BE it also Enacted for the future benefit of al Orphans That the several County-Courts do take into their serious consideration and care that the Lands in their County belonging to any Orphan be not aliened sold or taken up as deserted Land by any persons during the minority of the Orphan and that the Guards or Overseers of any Orphan do not lett set or Farm out any Land belonging to any Orphan for longer Tearm than until the Orphan be of age and that an especial care be had that the Tenant shall improve the Plantation by planting an Orchard and building a good House and that the Tenant be bound to maintain good Fence about the Orchard and keep the House in sufficient repair and leave it Tenantable at his surrender and that Provision be made in the Lease for preventing all Wast of Timber or imploying it to any other use then the use of the Plantation LXVIII Grants of Land BE it hereby Enacted That any person or persons claiming Land as due by Importation of Servants shall first prove their Title or Just Right before the Governor and Council or produce Certificates from the County-Courts to the Secretarie's Office before any Survey be made or Grant admitted It being unreasonable that others furnished with Rights should be debarred by pretence of a Survey which in it self is no Title LXIX Deserted Lands BE it also Enacted That no Pattent of Land shall hereafter pass upon pretence that the Land is deserted for want of Planting within the time of three years unless proof thereof be made before the Governor and Council and an Order obtained from them for the Pattenting thereof neither shall the first Petitioner for any
the Colony of Virginia shall for every Hundred Acres of Land holden in Fee plant upon the said Land Ten Mulbery-trees as twelve foot distance each from other and secure them by weeding and a sufficient Fence from Cattel and Horses c. between this and the last of December 1663. And for every Tree that shall be wanting and untended in manner aforesaid of the said proportion at the said last of December 1663. he the said Proprietour that shall be so Delinquent shall pay Twenty pound of Tobacco to the Publique Provided that this Act do not extend to Orphans until the expiration of Five years after their full age and then if Delinquent to be liable as aforesaid And no man planting more then his number shall excuse any that hath planted lesse Provided also that this Act extend not to such Proprietours as are not in Actual possession And because his Majesty hath taken particular notice of the great folly and negligence of the Countrey in omitting the Propagation of so Noble and Staple a Commodity It is Enacted That the Grand Jury do strictly enquire into the breach of this Act and make Presentment thereof that the Offenders may accordingly be punished And be it further Enacted That for the encouragement of all persons that shall endeavour to make Silk there shall be allowed in the Publique Levy to any one for every pound of wound Silk he shall make Fifty pounds of Tobacco to be raised in the Publique Levy and paid in the County or Counties where they dwell that make it CX Encouragement to build Vessels FOR encouragement of building Vessels in this Countrey and the promoting of Trade Be it Enacted That whoever shall build a Vessel of any Burthen decked and fitted to go to Sea shall for every Tun-burthen the said Vessel shall contain receive upon proof of her being so built Fifty pounds of Tobacco out of the Publique Levy Whereas Colonel Edmund Scarbrough hath to his particular great Charge but to the infinite good of the Countrey erected a Salt-work for which he hath received deserved thanks the last Assembly this Assembly for his greater encouragement hath thought fit to grant him the use of the Money raised this year out of the two shillings per hundred in Northampton-County with condition that he make re-payment of the same to those the Assembly shall allot it the next year in Salt at two shillings six pence per Bushel and Soap at And be it further Enacted That after the first of September 1663. no Master of Ship Barque or Vessel or any other person Merchant or Trader shall bring in any Salt into the County of Northampton under the penalty of Confiscating his Ship Barque or Vessel and Goods to the end that he and others may be encouraged in their industrious endeavours to promote the good of the Countrey CXI Tan-houses to be erected BE it also Enacted That according to the first Act of Assembly 1660. there be erected in each County at the charge of the County one or more Tan-houses and that they provide Tanners Curtiers and Shoomakers to Tan Curry and make the Hides of the Country into Leather and Shooes and that the persons intrusted with the oversight of the Workmen and the managing the Trade do allow to the Inhabitants of the County for every dry hide they bring at the rate of Two pounds of Tobacco per pound and sell their Shoos for Thirty pounds of Tobacco for plain shoos and Thirty five pounds of Tobacco for Wodden-heels and French-fals of the fix largest sizes and Twenty pounds of Tobacco a pair for the smallest shooes CXII Two Acres of Corn for each Tithable BE it hereby Enacted That all persons within this Colony shall plant or tend for every Tithable person tending a Crop in their Family two Acres of Corn or Pulse under the penalty of Five hundred pounds of Tobacco for every Acre neglected as aforesaid to be paid by the Delinquent and to be levied by the Sheriff for the Counties use and the Grand Jury in their several limits to look strictly after the breach of this Act. And for encouragement for men to sow English Wheat which may be a Staple-Commodity to vent out of the Countrey It is further Enacted That the sowing of one Acre of Wheat shall excuse the planting o the two Acres of Indian Corn or other Corn or Pulse as this Act enjoyns CXIII Stray Horses c. FOR remedy of the great abuse and wrong done in taking up of stray Horses Cattel and Boats lost not only in concealing them but in using and imploying them to the hurt and dammage of the Owners Be it Enacted by this present Grand Assembly that every person or persons that shall take up and keep any stray Horses Cattel or Boats shall cause the said Horses and Cattel with the mark stature and colour and the said Boat with her proportion and what was found in her to be cryed publickly in all the Churches and Chappels in the County within one moneth after the taking them up and in the mean time securely to lay up the said Boat and if no owner appear upon this publique notice given then to publish the same and set it up in Writing at the next County-Court where if no owner appear then it shall be lawful for him to make use of the said Boat untill the owner do appear who shall allow him for his pains One hundred pounds of Tobacco CXIV Free Trade BE it Enacted That Free Trade be allowed to all the Inhabitants of this Countrey to buy and sell at their best advantage and that all Acts concerning Ingrossing be from henceforth repealed and made void Provide alwayes That no person or persons shall have any Commerce or Trade with any Indians for Beaver Otter or any other Furs except those Commissionated by the Governour CXV Exportation of Hides WHereas the Exportation of Hides Wooll and Iron is generally conceived to be much prejudicial to the Common-wealth and good of this Colony Be it therefore Enacted by the authority of this present Grand Assembly that what person or persons soever shall Export out of this Countrey either Wooll Hides or Iron shall for every of their offences in so doing pay as followeth viz. for every Hide so Exported the sum of One thousand pounds of Tobacco and for every pound of Iron ten pounds of Tobacco and for every and of Wooll fifty pounds of Tobacco the one half of which said payments and forfeitures shall be paid to the Informer and the other half to the Publique CXVI Exportation of Money BE it hereby Enacted by this Grand Assembly that no false Mony shall pass for currant in this Countrey but pieces of Eight that are good and of silver shall pass for Five shillings currant Mony upon penalty of twenty shillings to be paid by the refusers of them And that none shall Export Mony out of this Country above the sum of Forty shillings if any shall exceed the same sum