ROBERT BOWIE, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR. NOVEMBER.

1804.

pany, to be by them employed as labourers upon the public works of the said company on the She-
nandoah, and elsewhere in the state of Virginia, and doubts having arisen whether the said slaves
can, under the existing laws of this state, be brought back to this state, after a year's residence in
the state of Virginia, without being entitled to freedom : And whereas it appears both reasonable
and proper that citizens of this state should be allowed the privilege of hiring their slaves to the
best advantage, when no injury to the state can result therefrom, and that every facility should be
given to works of public utility; therefore,

C H A P.
LXXXIX,

II. BE IT ENACTED, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That it shall and may be lawful for the
Patowmack company to hire any male slave or slaves, the property of any citizen of this state, and
to employ every such slave on any part of the works of which they may have the superintendence
and direction within the state of Virginia, and that no slave now employed, or who may here-
after be employed, by the Patowmack company as aforesaid, shall in any manner be entitled to his
freedom when brought back to the state of Maryland; provided nevertheless, that in case any slave
or slaves thus employed and hired shall not be brought back to this state within the term of twelve
months after the completion of such works, this act shall in no manner affect the rights of such slave
to freedom.

CHAP. XC.

Slaves may lie ^:'
hired, &c.

A Further supplement to an act, entitled, An ad relating to negroes,
and to repeal the acts of assembly therein mentioned.

Passed Janua-
ry 19, 1805.

BE IT ENACTED, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That if any person shall apply, by petition
in writing, to the county court of the county wherein such person shall reside, setting forth,
that any negro or mulatto, to whose services he was or is entitled for a limitted time or number
of years, has run away or departed from the service of such person, during such time of servitude,
it shall be lawful for such court, on being satisfied of the truth of the facts set forth in such peti-
tion, and that such departure from service hath not been caused by the ill treatment or misconduct
of the petitioner, or person under whom he or she claims, to adjudge such negro or mulatto to serve
the person petitioning, or his lawful assigns, such length of time after such negro or mulatto would
have been entitled to freedom, or for such length of time after the date of the judgment, as justice
and equity may require, and as the' court, under all circumstances, shall think reasonable; provided,
that no negro or mulatto so adjudged, shall be liable to be sold or assigned to any person residing out
of this state.

CHAP. XCI.

Persons maj
apply in
writing, kc.

An ACT to incorporate a company to make a turnpike road to lead
from the cross roads near Richard Caton's limekiln, in Baltimore
county, nearly in the diretion of Jones's Falls, to the city of
Baltimore.

Passed Jarma-
ry 19, 1805,

WHEREAS it has been represented to this general assembly, that the inhabitants on Jones's
Falls are not accommodated with a good roact, affording an easy transportation for their pro-
duce to the city of Baltimore, and that a turnpike road would greatly add to the interests of the
farmers generally; therefore,

Preamble.

II. BE IT ENACTED, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That a company shall be incorporated for
making a turnpike road for the accommodation of the inhabitants on Jones's Fails, and the country
adjacent, to be called The Falls Turnpike Roact, and the following persons, to wit, John Taggart,
William Clemm, senior, John Hosselbach, George Grundy and Edward Johnson, are nominated and
appointed commissioners to mark and lay off the said road on or near the stream of Jones's Falls,
beginning for the same at the ford by Messieurs Patterson and Stricker's mill, and running thence
northerly on and as near to the said Falls as may be found practicable for a good roact, passing over
the Bare Hills, to the westward of Benjamin Bowen's house, until it reaches the bend, running wes-
terly on or near to the land of Job Hunt, and from thence to the cross roads by the limekiln of
Richard Caton; and the said road shall be laid off sixty feet wide, including a ditch on each side ;
and the said commissioners, in laying off the said roact, shall not pass through any orchard, garden,
meadow or grain-field, whilst the crop is thereon, without the consent of the owner; and for making
the said roact, a subscription shall be opened for a capital of thirty thousand dollars, in shares of one
hundred dollars each, under the direction and management of John Hollins, William Cooke, James
P. Boyd, Thomas Dickson and James Ellicott, in the city of Baltimore, who shall for this purpose,

Company to be
incorporated,
&c.