BE it enacted, by
the General Assembly of Maryland, That the act, entitled,
An act to streighten and amend the
public roads, passed at the session of
assembly seventeen hundred and ninety-four,
held at the city of Annapolis
on the first day of November, and
the several supplementary acts thereto,
so far as the same relates to Somerset
county, be and the same are hereby repealed;
and hereafter the act of assembly,
entitled, An act for making of highways ,
and making the heads of rivers,
creeks, branches and swamps; passable
for horse and foot, passed at the
session of assembly held at the city of Annapolis
on the first day of September, seventeen
hundred and four, with the several supplementary
acts thereto, and the several clauses
and provisions thereof, be and
the same are hereby extended to
the county of Somerset, to all intents and purposes,
any law, statute or custom, to the
contrary notwithstanding.
II. And
be it enacted, That every overseer
in Somerset and Worcester counties
respectively shall be allowed, by
their levy court, a sum not exceeding ten
dollars per annum for superintending
the hands employed on the said roads,
which sum shall be paid out of the
fines hereby imposed; and it shall be the duty
of the overseers respectively to
keep a list of all absent persons who are by this
law obliged to work on the public
roads, and once in six months to call on them
for the payment of the sums by them,
or any of them forfeited, and on refusal
or neglect to pay the same on demand,
the said overseers shall respectively proceed
to recover the same by due course
of law; which sum or sums so recovered, after
defraying the cost of recovering
the same, and the allowance of the overseer or
overseers, shall be annually accounted
for with the justices of the levy court once
in every year by the said overseer
or overseers, upon oath or affirmation, as the
case may be.
III. And
be it enacted, That the levy
courts of Somerset and Worcester counties
respectively, at their next meeting,
and annually thereafter, in the manner
heretofore provided, shall appoint
over the public roads of said county a number
of overseers, not exceeding five
in any one hundred, and they shall ascertain and
list the person or hands which shall
be called out by the said overseers
respectively on the roads aforesaid.
IV. And
be it enacted, That every overseer
of a road in Somerset and Worcester
counties who shall fail to do his
duty as prescribed by law, shall forfeit
four dollars for every offence.
V. And
be it enacted, That any justice
of the peace of the county where the
overseer resides, who, upon his
own review, or information on oath, shall discover
or be satisfied that any road, bridge
or causeway, is out of repair from the neglect
of duty in the overseer, shall issue
his warrant, in the name of the state, against
the said overseer, and if no reasonable
excuse be made for such default, may give
judgment for the aforesaid penalty
and costs, and shall immediately certify the
same to the clerk of the county
court, who shall thereupon issue an execution,
directed to the sheriff, who shall
proceed to levy and collect the same, and account
for and pay the same to the order
of the next levy court; and all such
penalties shall go to the use of
the county, towards lessening the levy thereof;
provided nevertheless, that nothing
herein contained shall prevent any offender
from being presented by a grand
jury for any offence not punished by any justice
of the peace aforesaid under this
act.
VI. And,
whereas
frequent applications are made to the general assembly for
acts authorising the laying out
of new roads in the counties aforesaid, where the
proprietors of the land through
which the said roads prayed for and intended to
pass are willing that the same should
be granted: And whereas by vesting a
power in the levy courts of the
said counties to determined on the propriety of |
Acts repealed,
&c.
Overseers allowance,
&c.
Courts to appoint
overseers, &c.
Penalty for
neglect, &c.
Justice to issue
his warrant,
&c. |
