| 1796. |
LAWS of MARYLAND.
|
CHAP.
LXVII.
Court may
order a stay,
&c. |
XXVII. And be
it enacted, That if any petition for freedom shall hereafter
be filed in any court of law in this state, and dismissed, and a second
petition
filed at the suit of the same party, the court in which such second
petition may
be filed shall order a stay of all proceedings until the costs of the
former petition,
and all reasonable damages and expences sustained or incurred by the
defendant or defendants therein, to be ascertained by the court, shall
have been
paid or secured to be paid. |
Act to be
given in
charge. |
XXVIII. And
be it enacted, That it shall be the duty of the several county
courts of this state to give this in charge to the several grand juries
of their
respective counties. |
Healthy
slaves may be
manumitted,
&c. |
XXIX. And be
it enacted, That where any person or persons possessed of any
slave or slaves within this state, who are or shall be of healthy constitutions,
and sound in mind and body, capable by labour to procure to him or
them
sufficient food and raiment, with other requisite necessaries of life,
and not exceeding
forty-five years of age, and such person or persons possessing such
slave
or slaves as aforesaid, and being willing and desirous to set free
or manumit such
slave or slaves, may, by writing under his, her or their hand and seal,
evidenced
by two good and sufficient witnesses at least, grant to such slave
or slaves his, her
or their freedom; and that any deed or writing, whereby freedom shall
be given
or granted to any such slave, which shall be intended to take place
in future,
shall be good to all intents, constructions and purposes whatsoever,
from the
time that such freedom or manumission is intended to commence by the
said
deed or writing, so that such deed and writing be not in prejudice
of creditors,
and that such slave, at the time such freedom or manumission shall
take place or
commence, be not above the age aforesaid, and be able to work, and
gain a sufficient
livelihood and maintenance, according to the true intent and meaning
of this
act; which instrument of writing shall be acknowledged before one justice
of
the peace of the county wherein the person or persons granting such
freedom
shall reside, which justice shall endorse on the back of such instrument
the time
of the acknowledgment, and the party making the same, which he or they,
or
the parties concerned, shall cause to be entered among the records
of the county
court where the person or persons granting such freedom shall reside,
within six
months after the date of such instrument of writing; and the clerk
of the
respective county courts within this state shall, immediately upon
the receipt of
such instrument, endorse the time of his receiving the same, and shall
well and
truly enrol such deed or instrument in a good and sufficient book,
in folio, to be
regularly alphabeted in the names of both parties, and to remain in
the custody
of the said clerk for the time being among the records of the respective
county
courts; and that the said clerk shall, on the back of every such instrument,
in a
full legible hand, make an endorsement of such enrolment, and also
of the folio
of the book in which the same shall be enrolled, and to such endorsement
set
his hand, the person or persons requiring such entry paying the usual
and legal
fees for the same. |
A copy good
evidence. |
XXX. And be
it enacted, That a copy of such record, duly attested under
the seal of such office, shall at all times hereafter be deemed, to
all intents and
purposes, good evidence to prove such freedom. |
Several acts
repealed. |
XXXI. And be
it enacted, That an act passed at April session, seventeen hundred
and eighty-three, chapter twenty-three, entitled, An act to prohibit
the
bringing of slaves into this state, and an act passed at November session,
seventeen
hundred and ninety, chapter nine, entitled, An act to repeal certain
parts of
an act, entitled, An act to prevent disabled and superannuated slave
being set
free, or the manumission of slaves by any last will and testament,
and of a supplementary
act thereto, and for certain other purposes, and an act passed at
November session, seventeen hundred and ninety-one, chapter fifty-seven,
entitled,
A supplement to the act, entitled, An act to prohibit the bringing
slaves
into this state, and to alter and amend parts of the said act, and
an act passed at
November session, seventeen hundred and ninety-one, chapter seventy-five,
entitled, |
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