160 Assembly Proceedings, November 17-December 20, 1769.

Liber R. G.
1769

tinued Prisoners for debt in the Custody of the Sheriffs of the
respective Counties aforesaid 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 releived by a Particular Act
to be passed in their favour which by their 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 releived according to their Prayers and that it
may be Enacted.

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

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 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 Presence 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 Prisoner at some
Convenient Time after the end of this Session of Assembly all their
Real & Personal Estate either in Possession, Reversion Remainder
or in Trust or in or unto which they have any Claim or Interest
whatsoever and Likewise convey assign Transfer and make over unto
the Sheriffs respectively for the use of the said Creditors all such
their Estate Interest or Claim as aforesaid after such Manner as
by the said Sheriffs and by the major part of such Creditors or such
of them as shall think fit to Direct therein or their Council Learned
in the Law shall reasonably devise or require at the Costs and
Charges of the persons who shall Claim benefit thereof so that the

p. 38

said Prisoners be not burthened with any Warranties 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
Transfering their Estate as aforesaid shall take their solemn Oaths
(or Affirmation if Quakers) before the said Two Justices aforesaid
to the Effect following Viz.^t "I AB do affirm or solemnly Swear

[The Oath.]

That the Goods Debts and Effects which I have delivered assigned
and made over to the Sheriff of County 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 and
that I have not any Estate, Goods or Effects of any kind whatsoever
Left either in Possession Reversion or Remainder (the necessary
Wearing Apparel of myself Wife and Children and Working Tools