248 Assembly Proceedings, November 1-December 6, 1766.

Liber H. S.
No. 1

set forth that they have respectively continued Prisoners for Debt
in the Custody of the Sheriffs of the respective Counties afore-
said for a considerable time past and still continue in the like
deplorable Circumstances not being able to redeem their Bodies
with all the Estate or Interest they have in the World which
they would readily surrender up and part with to their several and
respective Creditors if they would Accept of the same and grant
the said Petitioners their Liberty which seems so unlikely for
them to Obtain that unless relieved by a particular Act to be
passed in their favour which by the said Petitions they have
humbly prayed they must inevitably continue Prisoners for life
and as the allegations of the said Petitioners appear to this
General Assembly to be true and that their lying in Goal can be
of no advantage to their Creditors it is humbly prayed that the
said Petitioners may be relieved according to their prayes and that
it may be Enacted

[Prisoners
to be dis-
charged on
delivering up
their Effects
on Oath]
p. 641

And be it Enacted by the Right Honourable the Lord Pro-
prietary by and with the Advice and consent of his Lordships
Governor and the upper and Lower houses of Assembly and the
Authority of the same that in case the said Prisoners shall deliver
up and Surrender or cause to be delivered up and Surrendered
to the Sheriffs of the respective Counties aforesaid in the pres-
ence of two Justices of the Peace of the Counties aforesaid
whom the said Sheriffs are hereby required to Summon at the
request of the said Prisoners at some Convenient time after the
receipt of this Act not exceeding five days all their real and
personal Estate either in Possession, reversion, remainder or in
trust or in or unto which they have any claim or Interest what-
soever and likewise before the day before mentioned Convey,
Assign, Transfer and make over unto the sheriffs respectively
for the use of the said Creditors all such their Estates Interest or
Claim as aforesaid after such manner as by the said Sheriffs and
by the Major part of such Creditors or of such of them as shall
think fitt to direct therein or their Council Learned in the Law shall
reasonably devise or require at the Costs and Charges of the per-
sons who shall claim Benefit thereof so that the said Prisoners be
not burthened with any Warrantees thereby other than against
themselves or those Claiming by from or under them and that the
said Prisoners at the time of such their surrender and Transferring
their Estate as aforesaid shall take their Solemn Oaths (or Affirma-
tion if Quakers) before the said Two Justices aforesaid to the
Effect following Viz.^t I. A. B. do affirm or Solemnly Swear that

[The Oath]

the goods Debts and Effects which I have delivered assigned and
made over to the Sheriff of County and in trust for
the use of my Creditors is the whole Estate both real and Personal
of my own in possession or that I have any title to in the world