and construction of this Ordinance and within all Laws in force concerning Highwayes and in every Parish and place where Pavements and Streets are they shall bee Paved and kept in good repair and cleansed for the conveniencie and health of the Inhabitants And where any of the Provisions afore-mentioned or any other Laws now in force concerning Highwayes Streets or Pavements shall not bee found sufficient to reform the great defects of Pavements and Water-courses and in removing of filth and other nusances in such Streets and places it shall and may bee lawful to and for the Inhabitants of any such Parish rated to the poor to meet together at the time hereby appointed for choice of Surveyors or Scavengers at which time or as often as the said Inhabitants shall pleas they shall set down and make such reasonable by-laws and orders for the rating and taxing the several Inhabitants of the said Parish being occupiers of any Houses Lands Tenements or Hereditaments or having any Stock or Trade or otherwise being of sufficient abilitie for reforming the defects in Paving and cleansing the Streets and causing the Channels and Water-courses to run freely and for keeping the same in good order and for assessing and imposing reasonable penalties upon offendors and for Levying of the said several sums by Warrant of any Iustice of Peace within the limits of his Commission by distress and sale of the offendors goods and for imploying the same and reforming the neglect of Scavengers and Inhabitants in any the premisses as they shall think fit which Orders so make being presented unto and allowed or altered by the Iustices of Peace at their open Sessions shall bee duly observed and put in execution according to the allowance or alteration of the said Iustices of Peace and bee final to all parties XVI That all sums of money Assessed and Rated as aforesaid and all fines penalties forfeiture and other sums of money arising by Assesment or otherwise by this Ordinance or by any other Law now in force touching Highwayes and Streets and all Issues to bee forfeited for not appearing to any Information or Indictment for not repairing any Highwayes or not remooving or reforming defects and Nusances in any Streets or Highwayes And all Fines or Amercements to bee imposed upon any Parish or private person for not repairing Highwayes Streets or Water-courses shall bee imployed and bestowed by the said Surveyors of Highways in paying Workmen's Wages for doing such works and for such other imployment as are hereby appointed to bee don and performed and shall be Levied by virtue of this Ordinance by the said Surveyors of Highwayes or any of them by Warrant from any Iustice of Peace within the Countie Riding Citie Town-Corporate or limit of his Commission by Distress and Sale of the goods of such person as shall bee so behinde or chargeable with any such sum and for default of such distress or non-payment of the money by the space of ten days after demand thereof made or left at his hous in Writeing under the hand of the said Surveyors or either of them the partie so in arrear shall bee by Warrant from any Iustice of Peace within the said Division committed to prison to the Common-Goal of the Countie there to remain without Bail or Mainprise till hee have paid double what shall bee so in arrear and charged upon him to pay together with the charges incurred to parties prosecuting by such default XVII That if any suit shall bee commensed by any person against any Constable or Surveyors of Highwayes or against any person imployed by them or any of them or authorized by this Ordinance to do or perform as by this Ordinance is directed for doing and performing as aforesaid that then in every such case the Action shall bee laid in the proper County where the fact was don and not elswhere and the Defendant may plead the general Issue to it and give the special matter in evidence at the Trial That what was don was don in pursuance of this Ordinance and if upon examination it shall so appear to bee don then the Iurie shall finde for the Defendant And in such case as also if the Plantiff shall bee non-suit or discontinue his Action after the Defendant hath appeared the Defendant shall have his full costs which upon Oath hee shall make appear to the Iudge before whom the Trial or discontinuance is had hee hath laid out in defence of such suit and also ten pounds more in regard of his unjust trouble and vexation taxed by the Court against such Plantiff XVIII That every Surveyor elected or hereby appointed as aforesaid shall yearly within one moneth after the expiration of the year wherein hee was so Surveyor make yield up to the Parishioners of the Parish a true and perfect account in writing at som publick meeting to bee appointed by the Parish of all the moneys hee hath received or paid out within his year for or by reason of his said office namely of whom and what received and to whom and what paid and if any overplus do remain in his hands hee shall pay the same over to the next Surveyors then in beeing for the use of the said Parish to bee disbursed in and about the High-wayes And if such Surveyors shall refuse or neglect to make such account or repayment as aforesaid that then it shall bee lawful to and for any Iustice of Peace within the Countie Riding Citie Town-Corporate or limit where the Parish lie's to examin the Account and upon default found on the Surveyor's part to commit such Surveyor to the Common-Goal of the Countie there to remain without Bayl or Mainprise until hee shall make such Account and payment as aforesaid together with such satisfaction for the damage which the said Parishioners have sustained by reason of such neglect as any such Iustice of Peace shall adjudg reasonable But if the said Iustice shall finde such Account to bee clear and good then hee is to allow the same and such Surveyor is not afterwards to bee questioned or troubled thereabouts Provided always that this Ordinance nor any thing therein conteined shall not extend to discharge any person or persons body-politick or corporate from repairing or reforming any the defects and abuses as aforesaid which by any Grant Tenure Prescription Limitation or Appointment of any Charitable Gifts they are bound and charged to repair and reform nor to alter or make void any Law or Custom now in force or used for the inforcing and constreining the said persons and bodies-politick aforementioned to perform and do their duties in repairing such Highwaies and Bridges as aforesaid And it is the true intent and meaning of this Ordinance that no Surveyors for amendment of Highwaies shall bee chosen at any other time or otherwise then by this Ordinance is directed And it is further Ordeined by the Authority aforesaid That no Writ of Certiorari shall issue or bee allowed to remove any Information Indictment Presentment or other proceedings within this Ordinance or within any Law now in force concerning Highwayes Causies or Bridges except it bee upon som question and controversie betwixt Countie and Countie And it is lastly Ordained by the Authoritie aforesaid That one Act made in the first year of the Reign of the late Queen Mary for and concerning the making repairing and amendment of the Common-Highway and Causie in the Counties of Dorset and Somerset between the Towns of Shaftsburie and Shirborne in the said Countie of Dorset Intituled An Act to Repair Shirborn-Causie in the Counties of Dorset and Somerset from henceforth shall bee revived and stand in force until the first of September 1662. Friday the 31 March 1654. ORdered by His Highness the Lord PROTECTOR and His Council that this Ordinance bee forthwith Printed and Published HEN. SCOBEL Clerk of the Council LONDON Printed by William Du-Gard and Henry Hills Printers to His Highness the Lord Protector 1654.
AN ORDINANCE FOR Better Amending AND Keeping in Repair THE COMMON HIGH-WAIES WITHIN THIS NATION Fryday March 31. 1654. ORdered by His Highness the Lord Protector and his Council That this Ordinance be forthwith printed and published HENRY SCOBELL Clerk of the Council London Printed by William du-Gard and Henry Hills Printers to His Highness the Lord Protector 1654. AN ORDINANCE For better amending and keeping in repair THE Common High-Waies within this NATION WHereas the seueral Statutes now in force for mending High-waies are found by experience not to haue produced such Good Reformation as was thereby intended Therefore and to the end more effectual Remedies may be provided Be it ordained by His Highness the Lord Protector by and with the advice and consent of his Council I. That in every Parish within this Nation of England and Wales there be two or more according to the Greatness of the Parish able and sufficient Hous-houlders inhabiting in such Parish and severally holding Lands there of the yearly value of twenty pounds or more in occupation or such others as shall be worth one hundred pounds in personal Estate elected and chosen upon the first Tuesday next ensuing the five and twentieth day of March yearly to be Surveyors of the High-waies within their Respective Parishes for the year ensuing II. That if it shall fall out that no such Surveyors shall be chosen as aforesaid within any such Parish that then in such case the Parishioners of every such Parish shall forfeit twenty pounds to be levyed upon the most Substantial Inhabitants thereof who are to have contribution from all the rest of the Inhabitants of the said Parish who are taxable hereby for repair of the said High-waies and in case of difference in rating the same to be ordered and settled by the Iustices of the Peace of the said County City or Town Corporate where such Parish lyes or any two of them and in such case where no such election of Surveyors shall be made as aforesaid the then Overseers for the Poor of that Parish are hereby appointed to be Surveyors of the said Surveyors of the said High-waies within such Parish for the year ensuing III. That every Person being elected or hereby appointed to be Surveyors of High-waies as aforesaid shall undertake the Office and shall within ten daies after such his Election or being appointed as aforesaid procure himself to be sworn before some Iustice of Peace of the County Riding City or Town Corporate or Limit within which his Parish doth ly diligently and faithfully to execute the office of Surveyor of High-waies within his Parish for the year then ensuing and faithfully to accompt for all moneys which shall come to his hands by vertue of his said Office which oath every Iustice of Peace is hereby impowred and authorized to administer within the Limits of his Commission accordingly And if any such person so elected or hereby appointed shall refuse to accept of his said Office and to procure himself to be sworn as aforesaid that then every person so failing shall forfeit for the same the sum of ten pounds IV. That every Surveyor of High waies having accepted the Office and being Sworn as aforesaid shall diligently apply himself to the duty and Execution of his Office and shall within ten daies after his Oath taken view all the Common and Publique High-waies and Roads where Carts and Carriages usually pass and all Common Bridges belonging to the said Parish to repair and all Water-courses as also all Streets and pavements and Common Nusances in the said Waies and Streets within their respective Parishes And shall consider what Reparations will be needfull to be made and what summes of money will be requisite and necessary to be raised within the Parish for amending and repairing the same upon pain of forfeiting twenty shillings a piece for neglect of such view V. That the said Surveyors do within six daies after such view give publique notice in the Church or Chappel to the Parishioners to meet to make an Assesment for repairing the said High-waies streets for making repairing of pavements and for cleansing the said Streets and pavements from time to time and for what else shall be requisite for the purposes aforesaid and thereupon a Rate or Tax in writing within three daies after such notice shall be laid by the said Inhabitants present at such meeting or the greater number of them by a pound Rate upon all the several Occupiers of Houses Lands Tythes Cole mines fellable Woods Tenements or Hereditaments within the Parish according to the true yearly value of the same and also upon the dead Goods Commodities or Stock in Trade of every particular Parishioner charged to pay to the poor rating every twenty pounds value of such Goods equal to every twenty shillings Land by year And such further Rate to be afterward and oftner made as occasion shall require so as all the Rates together do not exceed twelve pence in the pound for any one Parish in any one year VI. That if such Parishioners or the greater number of them shall not agree among themselves to make such Rate within two daies after such meeting that then the said Surveyors of High-waies themselves shall make a Rate in writing according to the direction aforesaid and such Rate as the said Parishioners or Surveyors respectively shall so make being confirmed by one Iustice of peace shall stand until upon complaint and proof of some Irregularity or Inequality therein to the Iustices of Peace at the Sessions the Bench of Iustices or any two of them then present shall see cause to alter the same And if the said Iustices shall find cause to alter it then the said Rate with such alteration as they shall make shall stand without any further Appeal VII That in case where Common Nusances are in High-waies or where such Common High-waies in any Parish are streightned by reason of inclosures made within twenty years either by Hedges Ditches Walls or the like or where Ditches or Water courses adjoining upon such High-waies or which do lead the water from such High-waies are not scoured and dressed or where any pavements are defective or any Nusances by filth or otherwise are in any paved Streets the said Surveyors shall see that the same be reformed and the Offenders in any of the premisses punisht according to Law by Information or Indictments deducting for the charge of prosecution out of the monys collected and the said Parishioners or Surveyors of High-waies respectively are hereby impowred in such case also to impose and leavy over and above the twelve pence in the pound before-mentioned such greater Taxes and Rates upon the Occupiers of those Lands where such Inclosures or Vndrest Ditches or Fences be as they shall respectively think fit having the same Rates allowed by the Sessions of the peace or the two next Iustices of peace as aforesaid which shall be final to the parties VIII That if any Parishioners rated
to the mending of High-waies as aforesaid shall fail to pay to the said Surveyors of High-waies his proportion of Tax rated upon him by the space of seaven daies after publique notice and warning given for payment thereof That then every such Parishioner failing shall pay double as much as he is rated at in the Tax IX That for more effectual mending the said High-waies and parish-Bridges and Streets for removing publique Nusances out of the same The Surveyors aforementioned shall yearly at such convenient times as they shal agree upon hire such and so many Labourers and Workmen and Carts and Carriages as they shall think needful for mending the said High-waies parish-Bridges and Water-courses and Streets and shall cause them to be fully and perfeccly mended from time to time and such Workmen and Owners of Carts and Carriages are hereby required to work accordingly for such reasonable Wages and under such penalty as any two Iustices of peace within the Division shall think fit X. That in places where Ditches adjoyning to common High-ways or serving to lead the water from such High-ways are or shall be undrest or unscoured or where water doth run into or stand in any such High-ways to the annoyance of it or where Trees Bushes or Hedges standing in High-ways or adjoyning to High ways are suffered to grow up and to hinder and obscure it from the power of the Sun for drying thereof The said Surveyors are hereby impowred in all such respective places to cause such Ditches to be drest and scoured and to stop and divert any such water-course and to turn the water into any adjoyning Ditch or to make new Ditches in convenient places through the Grounds adjoyning for the most convenient conveying such water as also to cut plash and keep low all such Trees Bushes and Hedges as they shall see cause XI That the said Surveyors be are hereby impowred further to dig for and get Stones Gravel Sand Sinder Chalk or any other material fit for mending High ways in or upon any the wast or common Grounds within the Parish or if they cannot there be conveniently had in and upon any private mans Pasture or fallow Ground where it may be had within the Parish or in any other near adjoyning Parish with convenient way for sending the same at such seasonable times and for such reasonable satisfaction and composition to such private person as the said Surveyors and Occupiers of such Land shall agree upon and in case of disagreement betwixt them then for such satisfaction as any Iustice of Peace near adjoyning not interessed in such Ground to be indifferently chosen by the parties shall set down and appoint and such Order as the said Iustices of Peace shall set down shall be final to the parties without further appeal XII That in case where the said common High-ways and streets are or shall be so defective or shall extend in so great length in any one Parish as that the parish is overburdened therewith and the Rate of twelve-pence in the pound before mentioned will not suffice to amend and repair the same the Iustices of Peace at their open Sessions are hereby impowred from time to time to rate such other parishes within the Limits of their Commission whose Rate for mending High-ways according to the true yearly value of the Land shall not amount to twelve pence in the pound as aforesaid as the said Iustice shall think fit till the Rate amount to twelve-pence in the pound towards the mending of the High-ways and streets in such parishes as they shall finde to be so overburdened XIII That if any Wagons Carts or Carriages wherein any Burdens of dead Commodities or Wares shall at any time from and after the first day of Mâ—y next be drawn upon any such High-ways Roads or streets with above five horses or Mares or six Oxen and one horse or Mare in any one Cart or Wagon that then it shall be lawfull to or for any Constable or Surveyor of High-ways or other Inhabitant in any parish where such loaden Wagon Cart or Carriage shall pass and be drawn as aforesaid to distrain and seize all such supernumerary horses Mares or Oxen as he shall finde in any such Wagon Cart or Carriage over and above the number of five horses or Mares or six Oxen and one horse or Mare respectively the same supernumerary Horses Oxen and Mares respectively to detain and keep until such Owner or Driver have paid and answered into the hands of the surveyors of High-waies within the parish where such Distresse and seizure shall be made or one of them the sum of twenty shillings for every such supernumerary Horse Mare or Ox And if such penalty be not paid within seven daies after such Distress or seizure together with full satisfaction for keeping the Beasts and Cattle distrained and other Charges thereabouts in the mean time that then it shall be lawful for such surveyors of High waies to sell such Horses Mares or Oxen so seized and to retain out of the price the said twenty shillings and charges returning the overplus to the partie And in case any difference happen about the same the Next Iustice of Peace shall determine the same whose Order therein shal be final to each partie XIV That the Iustices of peace at their open sessions shall be and are hereby enable and enjoined to enquire after hear and determine all Matters concerning any Charitable Gifts for the making amending and keeping in repair any Common High waies pavements streets causeys or Bridges within the Limits of their Commission as well where special Visitors and Overseers are appointed as otherwise and make Orders and Decrees for the due imployment of such Charitable Gifts according to the true intent of the Donors thereof as fully as any Commissioners for Charitable uses may do and in case they shall finde any wilful neglect or misimployment in any person or persons bodie politick or corporate in or concerning the same the said Iustices shall and may over and above the ordering and decreeing what shall bee due and in arrear with damage for not imploying the said charitable gift according to the true intent thereof impose a Fine not exceeding fourtie pounds upon such as shall bee found offendors therein which Fine in case of refusal to bee paid within fourtie daies of the demand made by Warrant from the Iustices or any two of them shall bee Levied by Warrant from the said Iustices by Distress and Sale of the offenders goods and being Levied shall by the care of the said Iustices bee imployed for the mending and repairing the said Highwayes Pavements Streets Bridges or Causies respectively And such order as the said Iustices shall make in the premisses shall bee final without further appeal XV. That Streets and Pavements in any Citie Town-Corporate or the Suburbs thereof or near adjoyning to the same are hereby declared to bee Common Highwayes and Scavengers to bee Surveyors within the intent