POOR.

poor, vagrants, beggars, vagabonds and offenders, in the pur-
chasing provisions and other necessaries for use and labour, in
paying a doctor for his salary and for medicines, in providing

1695

men and women servants to be under the discretion* and man-
agement of the overseer of such alms and work-house hereafter
directed to be appointed, for and in purchasing materials for the
use and employment of all the poor, and all beggars, vagrants,
vagabonds and offenders, who shall be able to woik, and who
shall be committed by virtue of this act.
By 1786, ch. 7, the justices are directed to levy annually the amount
mentioned in this section for the subsistence of their poor, in Dorchester, till
the end of the year 1788, and in Somerset till the end of the year 1789.
By May, 1788, ch. 6, the free school property of Dorchester county, is
vested in the trustees of the poor, which they may (with the consent of the
county court,) lease or sell, and apply the money to the support of the poor.
By 1793, ch. 24, any four of the trustees are authorized to place children
under three years of age out to nurse.

(direction)

SEC. 10. And be it enacted. That the said trustees, or the
major part of them, shall and they are hereby authorized,
diiected and enjoined, to meet together between the first and
tenth day of November, yearly, and at all such other times as
they shall judge necessary, at the alms and work-house in the
said county, dining the continuance of this act, to appoint a fit
person to be overseer of the alms and work-house in the said
county, and other proper officers and servants, as to them shall
appear necessary for carrying on the business of the said cor-
poration, and they, or the major part of them, shall and may
agree, and they are hereby empowered to pay the said over-
seer, out of the money raised and collected as aforesaid, a sum
not exceeding seventy-five pounds current money per annum,
as a salary, and so pro rata during his continuance in office,
and shall then take bond, which the said overseer, and any
other overseer to be appointed, shall and is hereby obliged to
enter into, with good and sufficient sureties, in the penalty of
two hundred pounds current money, payable to the said trus-
tees for the poor, conditioned as follows, to wit : 'The condi-
tion of the above obligation is such, that if the above bound
A. B. as overseers of the alms and work-house in Dorchester
or Somerset counties, (as the case may be,) shall well and
truly discharge his duty in the said station, and more particu-
larly according to the directions of the act of assembly, entitled,
an act for the relief of the poor in Dorchester and Somerset
counties, then the above obligation to be void, otherwise to
remain in full force and virtue in law.'
See 1812, ch 12, sec. 8 and 9.

Trustees to
meet
yearly, &c.

SEC. 11. And be it enacted, That the said trustees, or a major
part of them, shall, and they are hereby directed and empow-
ered to remove such overseer, and all other officers by them

May re-
move over-
seers, &c.