place within their said counties respectively as to them shall seem meet, to qualify
themselves for the office of trustees for the poor of their county, which they are to
do by taking and subscribing the several oaths, or affirmations, appointed by law to
be taken to the government, and subscribing a declaration of their belief in the
christian religion, and also taking the following oath, viz. " I, A. B. do swear,
or affirm, that I will duly and faithfully discharge the duties and trusts committed
to me as a trustee for the poor of Montgomery and Harford county, as the
case may be, by an act of the general assembly, entitled, An act for the relief of
the poor in Montgomery and Harford counties, according to the best of my skill
and knowledge.  So help me God;"  The which oaths are to be administered
by any of the persons last named for the county to the persons first named, or in
his absence to any one of the persons first named that shall be there present, the
which person, being sworn as aforesaid, shall administer the oaths aforementioned
to all the rest, and so successively, the person first named, that shall
be present, shall always administer the said oaths to any that have been absent,
or that shall hereafter be elected and chosen pursuant to the directions of this
act to supply the place of any that shall be dead or removed out of the county,
or if any shall refuse or neglect to qualify, or be rendered incapable of acting as a
trustee, when elected and chosen pursuant to the directions of this act; and the
aforesaid persons, or the majority of them, being sworn as aforesaid, shall be
constituted and qualified as trustees of the poor of their said county, and as such
are hereby invested with full power and authority, as a body politic, to plead
and be impleaded, to sue and be sued, to defend and be defended, to answer
and be answered, by the name of the trustees of the poor of Montgomery or
Harford county, as the case may be, in all and every cause, complaint and action,
real, personal or mixed, of whatever kind or nature it shall be, in any court of
judicature within this state, and by that name they, and any of them, and their
successors, shall and they are hereby enabled to take, hold, possess and enjoy, any
gift, donation or present, which shall or may hereafter be given, devised or bequeathed,
by any person or persons whatsoever, to them, or any of them, for
or towards the support and maintenance of the poor in their respective counties;
and they, or any of them, may receive, by way of subscription, any sum or sums
of money which shall or may be given for the better and more speedily promoting
the benefit and good by this act intended; and that they have full power, authority
and ability, to purchase, take, hold, receive, enjoy and have, to them
and their successors for ever, any lands, tenements and hereditaments, not exceeding
the yearly value of five hundred pounds current money, and are hereby
respectively empowered and authorised to use one common seal in their business,
relating to the said corporation, and the same, if necessary, to change and alter;
and that the said persons so incorporated, and their successors, shall be the true
and undoubted trustees, in perpetual succession for ever, to be continued in way
and manner hereafter specified, with full and absolute power, liberty and authority,
in the making and ordaining such laws, orders and rules, for the better
relieving, regulating, and setting the poor to work, and punishing vagrants, beggars,
vagabonds and offenders, and for the good government of the said alms and 
work-house in their said counties respectively, as to them and their successors
shall, from time to time, think most fit and requisite, all which shall be observed
by the overseers of such alms and work-houses, and by all poor, beggars,
vagrants, vagabonds and offenders, in such alms and work-houses, under the
penalties therein contained.  Provided always, that the said rules, laws and
orders, be no ways contrary to the laws of this state.

CHAP.
  XVI.