BENJAMIN OGLE, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR.

1798.

juftices, or a majority of them, may adjourn from day to day until the faid roads fhall be duly
afcertained, and overfeers appointed as aforefaid.

CHAP.
XXXVIII.

III. AND BE IT ENACTED, That the clerk of the court of faid county fhall attend the juftices
of the peace at their faid meetings, and fhall make fair entries and records of their proceed-
ings in virtue of this act, and fhall, within the fpace of ten days after the appointment of over-
feers as aforefaid, iffue warrants to the faid overfeers, under his hand, and the feal of his office
notifying the faid perfons of their appointments refpectively as overfeers of the faid roads'
and the faid clerk fhall, within the time aforefaid, deliver the faid warrants to the fheriff of
Somerfet county aforefaid, and fhall take the receipt of the fheriff for the fame; and the faid
fheriff fhall be and he is hereby authorised and required, within the fpace of twenty days after
receiving the faid warrants, to deliver the fame to the refpective perfons appointed overfeers as
aforefaid, and to take their feveral receipts for the fame; and if any of the faid overfeers
fhall refufe to receive their refpective warrants, the faid fheriff fhall leave the fame at their
refpective places of abode, and certify the juftices of the peace thereof; and if the clerk or fhe-
riff of the faid county fhall neglect or refufe to execute and perform the refpective duties herein
before required, within the respective periods limitted as aforefaid, the faid cleric or fheriff fo
neglecting or refufing, fhall forfeit and pay a fum not exceeding thirty dollars for each offence.

Clerk to attend
the juftices, &c.

IV. AND BE IT ENACTED, That each and every perfon fo appointed overfeer as aforefaid,
who fhall neglect or refufe to accept of his appointment, after receiving his warrant as aforefaid,
fhall forfeit and pay a fum not exceeding ten dollars; provided neverthelefs, that no member
of the legiflature, magiftrate, clergyman, fchoolmafter, practifing attorney, coroner, fheriff, de-
puty-fheriff, conftable, phyfician, or commiffioner of the tax, fhall be liable to ferve as overfeers
of the faid roads, without his or their confent; and provided alfo, that no perfon fhall be
compellable to act as overfeer of any road more than one year in every three years, without
his confent.

Penalty
verfeers
fufing

V. AND BE IT ENACTED, That it fhall be the duty of the faid overfeers to keep all the public
roads in the faid county well and fufficiently cleared and grubbed, fit for travelling, twenty feet
wide at the leaft, and to make and keep good and fubftantial bridges over all the heads of rivers,
creeks, branches and fwamps, where the fame fhall be neceffary, for the convenient and eafy
paffage of travellers, with their waggons, carts, carriages, horfes and cattle, and to remove all
nuifances which may obftruct or annoy their paffage, and well and fufficiently to caufeway all
and fingular fuch places in and upon the faid roads as fhall require the fame.

Overfeers to
keep the roads
cleared, Sec,

VI. PROVIDED ALWAYS, That nothing in this act fhall be confidered to make it the duty of
overfeers of the roads aforefaid to make or repair any bridge or bridges above fifteen feet in
length, but they fhall continue to be built and repaired in the fame manner as at prefent.

VII. AND BE IT ENACTED, That if any of the faid overfeers fhall not well and fufficiently
clear, grub, amend and repair, the faid feveral and refpective roads committed to their charge,

within a reafonable time after the fame fhall be out of repair, or fhall not make and keep in repair
good and fubftantial bridges over the heads of rivers, creeks, branches or fwamps, where the
fame fhall be neceffary as aforefaid, or fhall not remove all nuifances from the faid roads, or fhall
not well and fufficiently caufeway all and fingular fuch places in and upon the faid roads as fhall
require the fame, or fhall permit or fuffer any fallen trees, or other obftruction, to remain in or
acrofs any of the faid public roads for the fpace or two clays after notice thereof, or fhall neglect
to fell, or caufe to be felled and removed, all decayed or dead trees on either fide of the faid
public roads, whole limbs or any of them hang over the fame, and may by their falling injure

travellers, or fhall not lop and cut off all limbs or branches of trees hanging or projecting over
the faid roads, within fifteen feet above the furface thereof, or fhall in any other manner fail or
neglect to perform the duties of an overfeer of the faid roads, according to the directions of this
act, every fuch overfeer, fo failing or neglecting, fhall forfeit and pay a fum not exceeding five
dollars for every offence, except in the time of wheat harveft.

Provifo.

VIII. AND BE IT ENACTED, That it fhall and may be lawful for the feveral and refpective

overfeers of the faid roads, and they are hereby authorised and empowered, as often as need
fhall require, to dig, take and remove, any ftones, gravel or earth, which may be found on any
land adjoining the roads for which the fame may be neceffary, and to employ the fame in the
repairing of the faid roads; and for the making or repairing of bridges over the heads of rivers,
creeks, branches, fwamps, or other low and miry places, through and over which the faid roads
may pafs, to cut down, or caufe to be cut down, any tree or trees growing on any of the next
adjacent lands to fuch places where bridges or caufeways may be neceffary as aforefaid, and the
fame trees to maul and carry away from off fuch lands, and to apply the fame to the making
or repairing of the faid bridges or caufeways; provided always, that no enclofures fhall be
laid open or entered into to obtain the feveral materials aforefaid, or any of them, without the
confent of the owner or owners thereof.

IX. AND BE IT ENACTED, That due compenfation be made or fecured to him or them by the
county for the feveral materials aforefaid, according to the full value thereof, in fuch manner as
the juftices of the levy court fhall direct and appoint.

X. AND BE IT ENACTED, That the faid overfeers fhall have power, and they are hereby
authorifed and required, to call for all and fingular the able bodied free male inhabitants of their
refpective limits above the age of twenty-one years and under the age of fifty years, and upon
all and fingular the able-bodied male fervants and flaves refiding therein above the age of fixteen

years and under the age of fifty years, to labor and affift in clearing, amending, improving, and

repairing, the feveral and refpective roads aforefaid, and to require fuch and fo many of the faid

Overfeers may

call on all free

males