CHAP.
 LVII.

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 ____ by an act of assembly, entitled, An act for the 
relief of the poor in Dorchester and Somerset counties, according to the
the best of my skill and knowledge.  So help me God;" the which
oaths are to be administered by any of the six persons last named for the
county to the person first named, or in his absence to any one of the five
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 who shall refuse or neglect to qualify, or be rendered incapable
or 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 Dorchester and Somerset counties, 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, and 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 the said county, 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 speedy promoting
the benefit and good by this act intended, and that they shall 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 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, or the
longest livers and successors of them, shall be the true and undoubted
trustees in perpetual succession for ever, to be continued in way and name
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 county, as to them and their successors shall
from time to time think most fit and requisite, all which shall be observed
by the overseer of such alms and work-house, and by all poor, beggars,
vagrants, vagabonds and offenders, in such alms and work-house,
under the penalties therein contained; provided always, that the said
rules, laws and orders, be no ways contrary to the laws of this state.

How vacancies
are to be
filled.