AT A

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Benjamin

esq. gover

Begun and held at the Public Buildings in the City of Richmond, on Harrison, Monday the twentieth day of Octo- nor. ber, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, and in the eighth year of the commonwealth.

CHAP. 1.*

(Chapter CLXXXVIII in original.]

See October

An act to amend the several acts of Chan. Rev. assembly for ascertaining certain pa. 207. taxes and duties, and for establishing a permanent revenue.

1783, ch. 8.

May 1783, ch. 38.

Commodi. ties, viz. to

receivable

I. WHEREAS application hath been made to this present general assembly, that the produce of the coun- bacco, hemp try may be received in payment of the taxes imposed flour, and by an act, intituled, "An act to amend and reduce the deer-skins, several acts of assembly for ascertaining certain taxes for half the and duties, and for establishing a permanent revenue, taxes, into one act:" Be it therefore enacted, That one half of the tax directed under the aforesaid act, to be paid for the present year, and distrainable for on the twen

In the original the chapters are numbered progressively from the end of the last session, although the paging commen. ces anew. But, as in the Chancellors' Revisal, the chapters commence with number 1, and the sections are differently arranged, in many instances, from the original, I shall conform to the Chancellors' Revisal, in this publication, for the convenience of reference.

tieth day of November, on lands and lots, free male persons above the age of twenty one years, slaves, cattle, horses, mares, colts, mules, wheels for riding carPrice and riages, billiard tables, and ordinary licenses, may be various re- paid at the option of the payer, either in specie, tobac gulations. co, hemp, flour, or deer-skins, to wit: In inspectors receipts or notes, for good merchantable crop tobacco, not less than nine hundred and fifty nett weight, which shall have been inspected or re-inspected since the first day of October, in the present year, at the rate of thirty shillings per hundred, or in transfer receipts or notes for tobacco at the rate of one hundred and six pounds for one hundred pounds of crop tobacco, at any public inspection within this commonwealth, or in inspectors receipts or notes for sound, clean, and merchantable hemp, delivered at the ware-houses provided or to be provided for the reception thereof, at the towns of Alexandria, Dumfries, Falmouth, Fredericksburg, Louisville, Smithfield, Winchester, Staunton, and Stonehouse in Botetourt, Richmond, Manchester, Blandford, and West Point. Provided, That hemp and skius, as herein after described, shall be the only articles receivable at the towns of Staunton and Winchester, and at the Stone-house in Botetourt; which aid notes or receipts for hemp, shall be received in discharge of taxes according to this act, at the rate of thirty shillings per hundred, except hemp delivered at Winchester, which shall be at twenty six shillings, at Staunton twenty four shillings, and at the Stone-house twenty two shillings per hundred; or in receipts for sound and merchantable flour, inspected since the first day of October in the present year, in casks, delivered at the ware-houses provided or to be provided by the inspectors and receivers of hemp, at the aforesaid towns, at the rate of fourteen shillings per hundred, with an allowance of two shillings and six pence for casks and inspection; or in receipts for skins of deer in the hair, well skinned, cleaned, and trimmed, restricted to the seasons of red, blue, and short grey, delivered at the houses to be provided for that purpose, at the said towns of Staunton, Winchester, Louisville, and at the Stone-house in Sheriff's to the county of Botetourt, at the price of one shilling and give receipts eight pence for grey skins, and two shillings per pound expressing for red and blue skins. And any person or persons aid. chargeable with taxes by the said recited act, and pay

how taxes

ing the same in manner herein directed, shall be discharged thereof; and may demand and receive of the sheriff or collector a receipt, specifying in what articles such person paid his tax, whether it be specie or commutables, particularizing the ware-house from which the tobacco notes he may have received shall have issued. And every sheriff shall, moreover, return a list And return on oath of such payments, to the clerk of the court of a list to his county, immediately after his collection, copies of clerk's office which list shall be fixed up in the said court-house for up a copy in the inspection of the people. And the auditors are court-house. hereby required not to settle finally with any sheriff, for the taxes collected under this and the said recited act, except the said sheriff do produce to them a copy

who shall set

of such list, certified by the clerk; and the auditors To pay com. shall, upon settlement with the sheriff, give their order mutables to to the treasurer to receive such specie or commutables treasurer. from the sheriff, agreeable to the said list and every sheriff failing to pay the same accordingly, shall forfeit Penalty. and pay the sum of five hundred pounds, to be recovered in like manner as is prescribed in the case of delinquent sheriffs. Provided, That any person having Former paybefore the publication of the said act, paid to any sher- ments in coin regula iff or collector, in gold or silver coin, more than one ted. moiety of his taxes, shall, on tendering to the same sheriff or collector any article hereby declared to be commutable therefor, be entitled to a restitution of all such surplus.

Tobacco

certain ware.

II. And that the several sheriffs and collectors of taxes may be prevented from injuring the public revenue, payments by speculating in the payments made them of the tax-restricted to es aforesaid; Be it enacted, That every person charge- houses; able with such taxes, who may pay any part thereof in tobacco agreeable to this act, shall only be permitted to discharge the same in inspectors receipts or notes, issued from those ware-houses where the person chargeable therewith may by law pay parish and county levies and officers fees, agreeable to an act, intituled, "An act to amend and reduce the several acts of assembly for the inspection of tobacco into one act;" and the several sheriffs and collectors shall account for the same on oath, and shall make payment thereof at the treasury, but shall not be suffered to make payment at any other ware-houses whatsoever. Provided never- to certain theless, That nothing in this act contained shall entitle places.

And hemp

Inspectors of flour to re

turn accounts.

Pensity.

any person whatsoever to pay the commutable of hemp in discharge of taxes, except the property for which such taxes are due shall lie and be on the western side of the mountain commonly called the Blue Ridge, or the person rendering the same shall make oath that it is the growth of the estate for the taxes on which it is offered in payment. And provided also, That the receipts from the ware-houses hereafter mentioned, shall pass in the payment of taxes in the counties following, that is to say: In the counties of Frederick, Hampshire, Berkely, Shenandoah, Rockingham, Ohio, and Monongalia, at any of the ware-houses in Fairfax, Prince William, Stafford, or Spotsylvania; in the counties of Augusta, Botetourt, Rockbridge, Greenbrier, Washington, and Montgomery, at any of the ware houses in the counties of Henrico or Chesterfield.

III. And that the flour so paid in discharge of the taxes may be converted to the purposes by this act in tended, before the same shall be injured or lost; Be it enacted, That the inspectors or receivers of flour, shall on or before the fifteenth day of March next, make out and transmit to the treasurer a fair and accurate list of the quantity of flour by him or them received, and for whom; and on failure so to do, he or they shall forfeit and pay the sum of fifty pounds, to be recovered by motion in the general court, or the court of the county where such inspections may be, with costs, to the use of the commonwealth, and thereupon execution shall issue, provided the party has ten days previous notice of such motion. And the treasurer for Treasurer to the time being, shall sell the said tobacco, hemp, skins, and flour, from time to time, as occasion may require, for current gold or silver coin, or otherwise dispose of die said tobacco, hemp, skins, and flour, in payment of the debts and contracts of this commonwealth, on the best terms that can be obtained, in like manner as if the same had been current gold and silver coin actually paid into the treasury, having due regard to the appropriations which are or shall be made of the revenue of the commonwealth. And the courts of the counties respectively in which the aforesaid towns of Alexandria, Dumfries, Falmouth, Fredericksburg, Harrodsburg, Richmond, Manchester, Blandford, Staunton, Smithfield, Winchester, and West-Point, and the said stone-house, are, shall be, and are hereby authorized

sell commurables.

Courts to

provide hou ses to store hemp, flour, and deer. skins.

receivers at

and required, to provide good and sufficient warehouses for the storage of hemp, flour, or deer-skins, as the same are respectively made receivable at the said towns, and stone-house in the county of Botetourt, in the manner herein before directed, and to appoint one And appoint or two reputable persons, as the case may require, one or two within the said towns respectively, and at the stone- each place. house in the county of Botetourt, for the receiving, safe-keeping, and delivery of the said hemp, flour, or deer-skins, on public account, and for inspecting the said hemp, who, in the receipts given by them, or either of them, shall specify the names of the persons or owners delivering the same, the number and quantity of each bundle of hemp, and the ware-house, number, and nett weight of each barrel of inspected flour. received, for which the inspectors manifest shall be produced, and filed at the said ware-house, as a voucher to prove the inspection thereof, before the delivery

Their duty

by the owner; and the said courts respectively are here- And allow by authorized to allow to the inspectors or receivers ance. aforesaid, for their risk and trouble, five per cent, in money, valuing the articles by them received at the price they are estimated at in this act, which they shall certify to the auditors of public accounts; and all other expences attending the said ware-houses for the receiving and delivering of the hemp and flour aforesaid, shall be allowed and certified in like manner, and shall be paid out of the money in the public treasury arising from the sale thereof; and the said receivers or inspec- Togive band tors of hemp and flour, or deer-skins, shall, before entering upon the duties of their office, give bond in a reasonable penalty, payable to the treasurer for the time being, or to his successors, for the use of the commonwealth, conditioned for the true and faithful performance of the duties required of them by law in the execution of their said office; and in case of failure in Penalty on any court to appoint an inspector or receiver respec- courtsfailing tively as aforesaid, such court shall be liable to the same penalties as is provided in the case of the justices neglecting or refusing to take and return lists of the enumerated articles, to be recovered and applied in like manner; and such inspector or receiver shall be liable to damages upon the action of the party grieved, ceivers. and shall moreover forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred pounds, recoverable on information in any court, for the use of the commonwealth,

And on te