WILLIAM GRASON, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR.

1839.

and the right of an executor or administrator duly ap-
pointed by the proper authority of this State, shall be pre-
ferred to the right of the executor or administrator ap-
pointed by the authority of any other State, District or

CHAP. 42.

Executor of
this State shall
have preference.

country; provided, that notice of the claim of the domestic
executor or administrator to such stock be given to the
proper officer having charge of the stock-book wherein
such stock is entered, and having authority to make or al-
low a transfer thereof before any sale or transfer thereof
has been actually made by the foreign executor or admin-
istrator; and provided also, that administration shall not be
granted to any one in this State, except to the next of kin,
residuary legatee or a creditor, who shall make oath to and
exhibit the voucher of his claim before obtaining adminis-
tration.

Provisoes.

SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That no executor or admin-
istrator deriving his authority by letters testamentary or of
administration granted in any other State, District or Ter-
ritory of the United States, or any foreign country, shall be
authorised to transfer any of the stocks embraced in the
provisions of this act, until after such executor or admin-
istrator shall have given at least three months, notice by
publication, weekly, during the said three months, in two
daily newspapers published in the city of Baltimore, stal-
ing in such advertisement the death of his testator or in-
testate, and the amount and description of stock design-
ed to be transferred.

CHAPTER 42.

No transfer to
be made, &c.
until notice be
given, &c.

An act declaring Domestic Slavery to be lawful in this

State.

Passed Mar. 20,
1840.

WHEREAS the courts in some of the non slave holding
States require the owners of fugitive slaves to prove that
slavery exists in this State, and it is right to provide a
convenient mode of enabling such owners to procure a
certified copy of a law proving that slavery exists by law
in this State; Therefore,

Preamble.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of
Maryland, That negroes and mulattoes have been held in
slavery in this State as the property of their owners from
the earliest settlement of this State, and are, and may be
hereafter held in slavery as the property of their owners;

Slavery declar-
ed lawful.