526 Assembly Proceedings, May 8-May 30, 1754.

No. 5

Liber H. S.
No. 1

p. 148

An Act impowering the Rector, Vestrymen, and Churchwardens, of
Port-Tobacco Parish, in Charles County, for the Time being, to
purchase a Quantity not exceeding Two Acres of Land, and
thereon to build a Chapel of Ease, in the said Parish; and to
impower the Justices of the said County, to levy on the taxable
Inhabitants of the said Parish, a Quantity of Tobacco for the
Uses therein mentioned.

[Preamble.]

Whereas the Rector, Vestrymen, Churchwardens, and principal
Inhabitants of Port-Tobacco Parish, in Charles County, by their
humble Petition to this present General Assembly, have set forth,
That from the extensive Limits of the said Parish, many of the
Parishioners, inhabiting the Upper Parts thereof, are so remote from
the said Parish Church, that their Attendance, with their Families,
at the public Worship and Service of GOD, is rendered extreamly
difficult, and in the Winter Season almost impossible, and that they
are under great Inconveniences (from their being so situated), in
getting their Children baptized in the established Religion: They
therefore pray an Act may pass, impowering the Justices of Charles
County, on Application being made to them by the Vestry of the
Parish aforesaid, or the major Part of them, to levy on the taxable
Inhabitants of the said Parish, at Two Assessments (clear of all
Deductions), a Sum of Tobacco, not exceeding Forty Thousand
Pounds, to be laid out by the Vestry of the said Parish, or the major
Part of them, in building a Chapel of Ease, for the Conveniency of
the upper and remote Inhabitants of the said Parish, and in order to
enable the Vestrymen of the said Parish, for the Time being, or the
major Part of them, to purchase, or take up (as the Case may require) ,
for the Use of the said Parish, a Quantity of Land, not exceeding
Two Acres, lying in the upper Part of the said Parish, at a Place
called the Ivy-Spring, on a Branch, called the Dressing-Branch, near
the Pines, whereon to erect and build the same: All which being
thought reasonable, it is prayed that it may be enacted,

[Two Acres
of Land to
be purchased
to build
thereon a
Chapel of
Ease.]

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 the Vestrymen and Churchwardens of Port-Tobacco Par-
ish, in Charles County, for the Time being, or the major Part of
them, be, and are hereby, authorized and impowered, to purchase, or
take up as the Case may require), in Fee, in the Name of the Rector,
Vestrymen, and Churchwardens, of the said Parish, for the Time
being, such a Quantity of Land as to them shall seem most Con-
venient, not exceeding Two Acres, lying in the upper Part of the said
Parish, at a Place called the Ivy-Spring, on a Branch called the

p. 149

Dressing-Branch, near the Pines, and to treat and agree with such
Person or Persons as they, or the major Part of them, shall think