442 Assembly Proceedings, May 24-June 22, 1768.

N:^o 14:
Liber H. S.

No. 1

An Act for erecting a Court House and Publick Prison for Baltimore
County in the Town of Baltimore and for making Sale of the
old Court House and Prison

[Preamble]

Whereas many of the Inhabitants of Baltimore County have peti-
tioned this General Assembly setting forth that the Present Court
House for the said County situate in Joppa is considerably too small
for transacting therein the Publick Business That the same is greatly
out of Repair and the Offices thereof confined and the whole Building
slight and insecure for keeping the Publick Records of the said
County And that the County Goal from it's original ill Construction
has been a continual Expence to the County and defective and insuffi-
cient to prevent frequent Escapes of Criminals and other Persons
and that from the small number of Houses in the said Town of
Joppa the People who Attend the Courts cannot be accomodated
Whereby early Adjournments and late Meetings of the Courts are
unavoidable and the Publick Business greatly retarded and Praying
that a Law may pass for disposing of the Ground and Materials
of the present Court House and Prison of the said County and for
the Purchasing Ground and building a Court House and Prison in
the Town of Baltimore in the County aforesaid And as the Allega-
tions in the said Petition appear to this General Assembly to be true
it is prayed that it may be Enacted

[Commis-
sioners im-
powered to
buy 11 Acres
of Ground
for building
a new Court-
House, &c.
in Baltimore-
Town]

And be it Enacted by the Right Honourable the Lord Proprietary
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 the Honourable John Beale Bordley Esquire Messeiurs
John Ridgely, John Moale Robert Adair Robert Alexander William
Smith and Andrew Buchanan or the Major part of them be and
are hereby appointed Commissioners to execute and Perform the
several Trusts and Powers reposed in and required of them by this
Act and be and are hereby authorized and impowered to apportion
and lay off so much of a Street of the said Town of Baltimore called
and known by the Name of Calvert Street at the upper part thereof
next Jones's Falls as they shall think proper and to agree with the
Owner or Owners of the Land adjoining the Street of the said
Town of Baltimore called and known by the name of Calvert Street
for the absolute Purchase of any Part thereof they or the Major
part of them may judge proper not exceeding in the whole the

p. 690
[In case the
Owner, &c.
refuses sell-
ing said
Ground rea-
sonably, a
Jury to be
summon'd,
&c. to fix its
value;]

Quantity of one Acre and an half Acre and in Case the Owner or
Owners of such Land shall refuse to make Sale of so much of the
said Land as the said Commissioners or the Major Part of them
shall think necessary for the Purposes hereinafter by this Act directed
at a reasonable Price or be under any Disability of making thereof
then the said Commissioners or the Major Part of them shall be
and are by Virtue of this Act authorized impowered and required to
issue their Warrant to the Sheriff of the said County requiring and