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JOHN EAGER HOWARD, Esq; Governor.
acts, it was provided, that a bounty of one hundred acres of land, to
be
procured and laid out in such manner and place within this state as the
legislature
thereof should thereafter direct, should be given to every such recruiting
officer, or his legal representative, who should enlist twenty able bodied
effective
recruits within the times in the said acts respectively specified, and
also a bounty
of fifty acres of land, to be procured as aforesaid, to every recruiting
officer who
should enlist and deliver twenty able bodied effective recruits according
to the
terms of the said acts: And whereas by an act, entitled, An act to
appropriate
certain lands to the use of the officers and soldiers of this state, and
for the sale
of vacant lands, passed at a session of assembly begun and held at the
city of Annapolis
on Monday the fifth of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand
seven hundred and eighty-one, all the lands within this state in Washington
county, westward of Fort Cumberland, except as in the said act is excepted,
were
appropriated to discharge the engagement of lands heretofore made to the
officers
and soldiers of this state, and the residue to the use of the public, as
the general
assembly should thereafter direct: And whereas, in pursuance of a
resolve of the
general assembly, at April session, seventeen hundred and eighty-seven,
authorising
the governor and council to appoint and employ some skilful person to lay
out
the manors, and such parts of the reserves and vacant lands belonging to
this
state, lying to the westward of Fort Cumberland, as he might think
fit and capable
of being settled and improved, in lots of fifty acres each, Francis Deakins
was appointed and employed by the governor and council for that purpose,
and
has finished the said survey, and has returned a general plot of the county
westward
of Fort Cumberland, on which four thousand one hundred and sixty-five
lots of fifty acres each are laid off, besides sundry tracts which have
been patented,
distinguishing on the plot those lots which have been settled and improved
from
those which remain uncultivated; and the said Francis Deakins has also
returned
two books, entitled A and B, in which are entered certificates of all the
lots before
mentioned: And whereas it appears to this general assembly, that
there are
three hundred and twenty-three families settled on six hundred and thirty-six
of
the aforesaid lots, which they have improved and cultivated; |
1788.
CHAP.
XLIV. |
II. Be it enacted,
by the General Assembly of Maryland, That a preference be
given to the said settlers to purchase the said six hundred and thirty-six
lots by
them respectively settled, not exceeding the quantities registered and
noted by the
surveyor in the books aforesaid, at not less than five nor more than twenty
shillings
per acre, one third part thereof to be paid on the first day of September
next, one other third on the first day of September, seventeen hundred
and ninety,
and the remaining third in twelve months thereafter, in current money;
and
that the price of provisions furnished and services rendered in assistance
to the said
Francis Deakins in surveying the said lands, be discounted out of the first
or any
other payment to be made by the settlers. |
Preference to
be given to
settlers, &c. |
III. And be
it enacted, That in default of any payment to be made by any of
the said settlers on the day on which the same ought to be made as aforesaid,
the
land unpaid for shall be liable to proclamation in the usual manner by
any citizen
of this state. |
On default,
land liable to
proclamation. |
IV. And be it
enacted, That for the ease and convenience of the people, a proper
person or persons, not to exceed the number three, be appointed commissioner
or commissioners by the governor and council, who shall go into the neighbourhood,
and have power to decide all disputes which may arise concerning preemption,
and shall value the said lands, those of the best quality at nor more
than
twenty shillings, and those of the worst at not less than five shillings
per acre,
and all those of an intermediate quality according to their quality, having
regard
to the prices aforesaid. |
Commissioners
appointed,
&c. |
V. And,
whereas according to the most accurate account that can now be rendered
by the auditor-general, it appears, that there has been about the number
of two thousand four hundred and seventy-five soldiers, entitled under
the several
acts of the legislature to the said bounty of lands, and that there ought
to be about |
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