Acts. 273

Knotts and John Posey of Queen Anns County Archibald Campbell
and Abraham Covington of Somerset County; James Stradley of
Talbot County & Thomas Stoakes of Dorchester County: by their
Petitions to this present General Assembly have set forth, that they
have respectively continued Prisoners for Debt in the Custody of the
Sheriffs of the respective Counties aforesaid for a considerable Time
past & 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 & part with to
their several & respective Creditors, if they would accept of the same,
& grant the said Petitioners their Liberty, which seems so unlikely

for them to obtain. That (unless relieved by a particular Art to be

passed in their Favour, which by their said Petitions they have
humbly prayed) they must inevitably continue Prisoners for Life &
as the Allegations of the said Petitioners appear to this General
Assembly to be true & that their lying in Jail can be of no Advantage
to their Creditors, it is humbly prayed that the said Petitioners may
be relieved according to their Prayers & that it may be enacted.

Liber R. G.
1771

And be it enacted by the Right Honorable the Lord Proprietary
by and with the Advice & Consent of his Lordship's Governor & the
Upper & Lower Houses of Assembly & the Authority of the same,
That in Case the said Prisoners shall deliver up, & surrender or
cause to be delivered up & surrendered to the Sheriffs of the respec-
tive Counties aforesaid in the Presence of two Justices of the Peace,
of the Counties aforesaid, whom the said Sheriffs are hereby required

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

to summon at the Request of the said Prisoners, 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 what-
soever, & likewise convey, assign transfer & 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 & 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 & 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 them-
selves or those claiming by from or under them & that the said
Prisoners at the Time of such their Surrender & transferring their
Estate as aforesaid shall take their solemn Oaths (or Affirmation
if Quakers) before the said two Justices as aforesaid to the Effect

p. 139

following Viz.^t I A B do affirm or solemnly swear that the Goods
Debts & Effects which I have delivered assigned & made over to the
Sheriff of County in Trust for the Use of my Creditors is
the whole Estate both real & personal of my own in Possession, or
that I have any Title to in the World, & that I have not any Estate

[The Oath.]