WHEREAS the Encouragement of Trade and Navigation is the
surest Means of promoting the Happiness, and encreasing the
Riches of every Country, and that such Trade is with the greatest
Ease and Advantage carried on, when the same is drawn into and fixed in
one
or more convenient Places; whereby it appears, that erecting Towns, and
granting proper Immunities and privileges for the Encouragement of
People
to inhabit therein, must greatly contribute to so desirable an End; and
there
being as yet no such Place settled at, or near, the Head of Chesapeak
Bay, although
from the great Extent of the Country round, and the want of Navigable
Water above it, the same seems altogether necessary; It is therefore
humbly prayed that it may be Enacted;
II. And
be it Enacted,
by the Right Honourable the Lord Proprietary,
by
and with the Advice and Consent of his Lordship's Governor, and
the Upper and
Lower Houses of Assembly, and the Authority of the same, That
Colonel Thomas
Colvill, Captain Nicholas Hyland, Mr. Benjamin Pearce, Mr.
William Alexander,
Mr. Henry Baker, Mr. Zebulon Hollingsworth, and Mr. John
Read, be, and are
hereby impowered, authorized and appointed, Commissioners to put this Act
in Execution, according to the Directions hereafter mentioned, That
is to say,
That the aforesaid Commissioners, or the major Part of them, shall, at
some
convenient Time, by them to be appointed and agreed upon, before the
Twentieth Day of May next ensuing the End of this present Session
of Assembly,
meet upon a Parcel of Land, commonly known by the Name of
Long-Point, lying in Cæcil County, on the West side
of North-East River,
and shall then, or at any other Time or Times, to which they shall or may
adjourn, with the Assistance of the Deputy-Surveyor of the said County,
survey
and lay out for a Town, Two Hundred Acres of the Parcel of Land aforesaid,
which shall to them, or the major Part of them, appear to be most
fit and convenient for that Purposes, into Two Hundred Acres of
Land for a Common to the said Town, lying thereto contiguous, in such
Manner as to them, or the major Part of them, shall seem proper, and the
same Lots shall stake out, mark, and distinguish by the Number 1, 2, 3,
and
so on, to the Number Two Hundred.
III. And be it
further Enacted,
by the Authority aforesaid, That the
Surveyor
aforesaid, shall make Two exact Plats, with Certificates particularly
expressing the Lots, Streets, Lanes and Alleys of the said Town, with their
Numbers, Lengths, Breadths, and Names, of every of them, one of which
Plats and Certificates, subscribed by the said Surveyor, and the aforesaid
Commissioners,
or the major Part of them, shall be delivered to the Governor,
for the Time being, and the other, subscribed as aforesaid, to the Clerk
of
the County aforesaid, to be by him falsely kept, and the Certificate thereof
Enrolled amongst the Records of the same County; which said Plat and Certificate
lodged in the Custody of the said Clerk, all Persons shall and may, by
virtue of this Act, have free Liberty to inspect without any Fee or Reward.
IV. And be it
further Enacted,
by the Authority aforesaid, That the
Commissioners
aforesaid, or the major Part of them, shall, and are hereby impowered to,
treat and agree with the Proprietor or Proprietors, Owner or
Owners, or Persons interested in the Land aforesaid, so as aforesaid to
be laid
out into a Town and Common; or with the Agents; Factors, or other Persons
|
Preamble.
Commissioners
appointed
to lay out
200 Acres into
200 Lots,
and 300 Acres
of Common.
Two Plats to
be returned of
the Survey.
Power of the
Commissioners
to take
up the Land
by Purchase
or Valuation. |
