566

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

CHAPTEE 513

AN ACT to provide for the assessment of the unclaimed military

lots and tracts of land in Allegany and Garrett counties, and

for the collection of State and county taxes thereon by selling

the delinquent Jands and turning the net proceeds into the

State treasury.

WHEREAS, under the acts of seventeen hundred and eighty-

Preamble.

one, seventeen hundred and eighty-seven and seventeen hundred

and eighty-eight, upwards of two hundred thousand (200,000)

acres of " the reserved lands westward of Fort Cumberland "

Avere laid out in fifty acre lots and gratuitously awarded to the

officers and soldiers of the "Maryland line" for their services in

the revolutionary war; and,

WHEREAS, it appears from the assessment books that upwards

of one thousand of these military lots are not now assessed and

Preamble.

never have paid any State or county taxes during the past century

owing to the difficulty in ascertaining the proper names of the

last owners who are non-residents of the counties in which the

lots are located; and,

WHEREAS, many of these lots have been taken up under escheat

Preamble.

and other warrant and patented by the State and subsequently

disowned by the patentees for the alleged reason that living, but

non-resident heirs of the soldiers had been discovered; therefore,

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,

That the newspapers selected to publish the laws passed at this

session, shall publish the following notice daily, for thirty days,

in all the daily newspapers so selected, and weekly for ten consecu-

tive weeks in all the weekly newspapers so selected, (form of

notice to be published) : Notice is hereby given to the legal heirs,

assigns, devisees and representatives of all officers and soldiers

Notice.

who served in the " Maryland line " during the revolutionary war,
that unless their claims to military lots lying westward of Fort

Cumberland are legally established on or before the first day of

April, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, in such manner as to

secure the payment of State and county taxes thereon, all their

rights shall be forfeited to the State, and all such lots as have not

been patented or claimed by legal heirs, shall be advertised and

sold to the highest bidders for cash and the net proceeds paid into

the State treasury.

SECTION 2. And be it enacted, That in order to enable the

Fees for

county authorities to trace and define the titles to these untaxed

searches.

lands in time for the approaching general assessment, that they

or their agent, shall have free access to the records in the land

office of all patents, certificates of resurveys, indexes, &c., that

in any way affect the title to these unclaimed and untaxed lands,