1798.

L A W S OF M A R Y L A N D.

C H A P.
XCVII.

according as they, or a majority of the fubscribers prefent, (convened for that purpofe by one
month's previous notice in one of the Baltimore gazettes, and in the Frederick, George-town
and Eafton papers,) fhall agree upon; provided always, that they fhall not do any act contrary
to the laws of this ftate; and they fhall be obliged to pay the fufferers for the loffes or damages
by fire, on the property, which they infured in faid infurance company, according to the terms
they fhall agree upon, after regular proof that the lofs actually happened by fire; and if it can
be proved that the owner of the property infured did caufe the lofs or damage wilfully, with a
view of fraud, directly or indirectly, in that cafe he, fhe, or they fhall not be paid, but profecuted
according to law, and if the infured have been already paid, he, fhe or they, fhall be compelled
to return what has been paid to him, her or them, with intereft.

If the funds
fhould not be

fufficient, a re-
partition to be
made, &c.

II. AND BE IT ENACTED, That if the funds of the premiums paid on entering fhould not be
fufficient, a repartition among the whole or the members of this mutual infurance company, that
is, among thofe who have infured their property to be mutually concerned, fhall be made, and
each fhall pay on demand of the cafhier, his, her or their quota, according to the fum infured,
and the rate of hazard at which the building wherein the goods or furniture infured are, or the
goods themfelves ftand agreeable to the rate of the premiums; thefe quotas fhall always be fo
rated as to raife and keep up a fund, fo that the intereft thereof may be deemed by the prefident
and directors, (to be elected by the faid company,) fufficient to pay the annual loffes and expences,
but no farther payment fhall be made unlefs the funds are reduced fo as to be lefs than one per
centum of the whole amount infured, unlefs a majority of them fhould agree otherwife; when fuch
quotas are found neceffary, the prefident is to publifh in the public news-papers how much the
quota is of each rate of hazard per every hundred dollars, whereupon the infured fhall pay the
fame immediately to the cafhier in whofe office the property is infured; whensoever any perfon
or perfons fhall neglect to pay fuch quotas, the infurance to him made fhall ceafe and difcontinue
from the day on which they became due until paid; and the company aforefaid fhall have the
fame remedy againft delinquent members or perfons, to compel them to pay the premiums, on
thole quotas, (if they fhould be found neceffary by the prefident and directors which they may
elect,) as the prefident and directors of the bank of Maryland have againft delinquent perfons ;
as there may be perfons who would not with to join the mutual concern, this mutual infurance
company fhall be at liberty to infure the property of fuch perfons, on fuch terms and conditions
as they may agree upon.

Paffed Jan. 19.

Preamble.

C H A P. XCVIII.
An ACT authorising Nicholas Watkins, one of the collectors of Anne-Arundel
county, to complete his collections.
WHEREAS Nicholas Watkins, one of the late collectors of Anne-Arundel county, hath
fet forth by his petition to this general affembly, that there is ftill due to him as collector
a confiderable fum of money, which he has been unable to collect becaufe of indifpofition, and
prays that a longer time may allowed him to complete the collection of the fame;

N. Watkins to
collect, &c.

II. BE IT ENACTED, by the General Affembly of Maryland, That the faid Nicholas Watkins be and
he is hereby authorised, to collect all balances due him as collector for the laft year at any time
before the firft day of September next, in the fame manner as he could or might have done whilft
he was collector, any law to the contrary notwithstanding.

Provifo.

III. PROVIDED ALWAYS, AND BE IT ENACTED, That the faid Nicholas Watkins, before he pro-
ceeds to execute or diftrain the property of any perfon or perfons for taxes, fhall, at leaft ten days
before fuch execution or ditfrefs, deliver to the perfon chargeable with the fame an account,
written in words at full length, of all the taxes demanded of him, her or them, with an affidavit
annexed to the fame, that he hath not, to the beft of his knowledge, received any part thereof,
nor any thing in fecurity or fatisfaction for the fame, more than the credits given; and provided
alfo, that the faid Nicholas Watkins, before he derives any benefit from or under this act, fhall
lodge his collection books in the clerk's office of Anne-Arundel county court, to be there open to
the inspection of all perfons interefted in the fame.

Paffed Jan. 19.

Preamble.

C H A P. XCIX.

An ACT to authorife an exchange of lands between John Eversfield and the
other representatives of Matthew Eversfield, late of Prince-George's county.

WHEREAS it is represented, to this general affembly, by the petition of Sufannah Evers-
field, executrix of Matthew Eversfield, and Thomas Mundell, John Eversfield and Anne
Eleanor Eversfield, that the faid Matthew Eversfield left eleven children, to wit: Virlinda.

Mundell, wife of the faid Thomas Mundell, the faid John Eversfield and Anne Eleanor Evers-
field, each above the age of twenty-one years, and Eleanor Eversfield, Prifcilla Eversfield, Su-
fannah Eversfield, Charles Eversfield, Thomas Eversfield, Mary Eversfield, Elizabeth Eversfield
and Edward Eversfield, all minors; That the faid Matthew Eversfield made a will a few years
before his death, but fubfequent to the date of faid will he contracted with a certain Edward-
Botelar for the purchafe of part of a tract of land called Effex Lodge, and two other tracts of
land called Jofeph's Good Luck and Harry's Lot, all lying in the county aforefaid, and contain-
ing in the whole five hundred and twenty-eight and one-half acres, of which the faid Matthew

Eversfield died inteftate, but that no conveyance of faid land was ever made to he faid Matthew
Eversfield; that the faid John is feized as in tail of fundry tracts or parcels of
tracts of land, containing one thoufand and forty-feven ares, and as devifee of the faid Mat-
thew Eversfield hold fifty-one acres and three-quarters of an acre adjoining the land entailed :
And whereas it is ftated, that an exchange of faid lands between the faid John Eversfield and
the other reprefentatives of the faid Matthew Eversfield, would operate to the advantage of the
minors, and the petitioners have prayed that a law might pafs authorising the fame; and the
prayer thereof appearing reafonable; therefore,