402 Assembly Proceedings, March 23-April 19, 1774.

Liber R. G.
1774

McNabb, of Baltimore County, John Smith, Samuel Dobie, John
Ringer, John Brown Jesse Alvey, Nicholas Annsbaugh, Benjamin
Nichols, George Walker of Frederick County Thomas Carney,
James Hardy, William Amer, William Sears Mark Fowler Samuel
Hawkins, Bayne, William Barker, Mathew Pape, Nicholas Nichol-
son John Brashears the third William Beck of Prince Georges
County Joseph Higgins Edward Knowles, Richard Grace, Richard
Dean, Francis Hepburn of Ann Arundel County, Lenard Field
Thomas Caywood, John Williams, Basil Patterson Silvester Strange
Moses White, Henry Fletcher, Mathew Boroughs, Basil Thompson,
Thomas Tryer, of Saint Marys County, Thomas Glover Marshall
Griffith of Calvert County Thomas Barnes of Baltimore County
Edward Davis, Isaac Green Charles Fullerton George Taylor of
Sommerset County James Barance, William Grayham, John Thomas,
Unicy Williams, James Underwood of Dorchester County John
Field, Rhodes Clerk, Moses Guttry of Worcester County John Bryan,
Abner Jones, Thomas Sparks, James Crann of Queen Anns County
John Smallwood, Thomas Coffer, Joseph Hagan, Alexander M.^oPher-
son, Mathew Coffer, Benjamin Gardiner of Charles County John
Burkett of Cecil County by their Petitions to this present General
Assembly have set forth that they have respectively continued Pris-
oners for Debt in the Custody of the Sheriffs of the respective Coun-
ties 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

p. 350

would readily surrender up and part with to their several and re-
spective 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 their said Petetions they have humbly Prayed)
they must inevitably continue Prisoners for life and as the allega-
tions of the said Petitioners appear to this General Assembly to be
true and that their lying in Jail can be of no Advantage to their
Creditors it is humbly Prayed that the said Petitioners may be re-
lieved 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 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 Sheriff of their re-
spective 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 Prisoners at some
convenient Time after the end of this Session of Assembly 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