how sup.

such as shall have been wounded. And if the command. er, master, or other officer, or any seaman or mariner, in any vessel carrying guns and arms, shall not, when attacked by any pirate or enemy, fight, and endeavour to defend themselves and their vessel, or shall utter any words to discourage the other mariners from defending the same, and by reason thereof the said vessel shall fall into the hands of such pirate or enemy, such offender shall forfeit all wages due to him to the owner, and shall suffer imprisonment at the discretion of a jury, if in their opinion such vessel might have been saved by a defence.

II. If any combination shall be set on foot for runMutiny on board vessels ning away with, or destroying any vessel, or the goods and merchandizes therein laden, the captain, commandpressed. er, or master, on due proof thereof, shall give a reward of fifty dollars, if the vessel be of one hundred tons or under, and seventy-five dollars if of greater burthen, to such person as shall first make discovery thereof; payment to be made at the port where the wages of the seamen ought next to be paid, and to be reimbursed as in other cases of salvage.

Commence.

III. This act shall commence and be in force from ment of act. and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.

From Rev. Bills of 1779, ch. xxxix.

Method of

CHAP. LXX.

An act concerning estrays.

I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That it shall be lawful for any person by himself or his agent, taking up and to take up any estray on his own land, and having appraising taken it, he, or his agent, shall forthwith give informaestrays. tion thereof to some justice of the peace for the said county, who shall thereupon issue his warrant to three disinterested freeholders of the neighbourhood, commanding them, having been first duly sworn, to view and appraise such estray, and certify the valuation under their hands, together with a particular description

of the kind, marks, brand, stature, colour, and age;
which certificate shall by the justice be transmitted to
the clerk of the county court within twenty days, and
by such clerk entered in a book to be kept for that
purpose, for which he may demand and take ten
pounds of tobacco, to be paid down by the taker up.
II. The clerk shall moreover cause a copy
of every
such certificate to be publicly affixed at the door of his
court-house, on two several court-days next after he
receive the same, for which, and a certificate thereof,
he shall receive the like fee as for entering the same in
the book.

How adver

tised.

When pro

III. If the valuation shall be under twenty shillings, and no owner shall appear until notice shall have been perty vested twice published, as aforesaid, the property shall then in taker up. be vested in the owner of the land, on which such estray was taken; and if the valuation shall exceed twenty shillings, such owner sirall, within three months after the appraisement, send to the public printer a copy of the certificate, to be advertised three times in the Virginia Gazette, with notice of the place where such estray is, for which the printer may demand four shillings for each estray; and if no owner appears to claim such estray within a year and a day after the publication, the property shall from thenceforth be vested in the owner of the lands whereon it was taken. But the Valuation former owner, in either case, may at any time, within money, refive years afterwards, upon proving his property, de- served for proprietor. mand and recover the valuation money, deducting therefrom the clerk and printer's fees, and five shillings for every horse or head of neat cattle, and one shilling for every other beast.

a

Boats and

vessels adrift, how proceed. ed on.

IV. If any person shall take up a boat or other vessel adrift, he shall in like manner make application to justice of one of the adjacent counties, for his warrant to have the same valued and described by her kind, burthen and built, and shall proceed in all other respects, and have the same benefit as before directed in the case of estrays. Provided always, That if after notice published as aforesaid, any estray shall happen in case estray to die, or by any casualty get out of the possession of should die. the person who took the same up, without his or her default, such taker up shall not be answerable for the same, or for the valuation thereof; nor shall any taker VOL. XII.

W

Provision in

1

Commencement of act.

ap be answerable for any boat or other vessel lost as aforesaid.

V. This act shall commence and be in force from and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.

CHAP. LXXI.

From Rev Bills of 1779 ch. XL.

Restitution

of stolen

ordered by court, before whom convic tion.

An act for the restitution of stolen

goods.

I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That if any felon do rob or take away any money or goods, or goods, to be chattels, from any of the citizens of this commonwealth or from any person travelling through or making a temporary stay within the same, from their person or otherwise, within this commonwealth, and thereof the said felon be indicted, and after arraigned of the same felony, and found guilty thereof, or otherwise attainted by reason of evidence given by the party so robbed, or owner of the said money, goods, or chattels, or by any other by their procurement, that then the party so robbed, or owner, shall be restored to his said And that the justices money, goods, and chattels: before whom any such felon shall be found guilty, or otherwise attainted by reason of evidence given by the party so robbed, or owner, or by any other by their procurement, have power by this present act, to award from time to time, writs of restitution for the said money, goods, and chattels.

Commencement of act.

II. This act shall commence and be in force from and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.

CHAP. LXXII.

An act for preventing infection of the horned cattle.

From Rev. Bills of 1779,

ch. XL.

to be produ

state.

How obtain

1. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That the Bills of health driving of cattle into, or through the commonwealth, ced, by peror any part thereof, if it be not to remove them from sons driving one plantation to another of the same owner, or to be cattle into or used at his house, shall be deemed a nuisance, unless through this the driver shall produce to any freeholder of a county wherein the drove is passing, who shall require it, a bill of Health, signed by some justice of the commonwealth, containing the number of the drove, with descriptions of the cattle, by their sexes, flesh marks, and ear marks, or brands, and certifying them to be free from distemper; or, notwithstanding he may produce such bill of health, unless he shall forthwith obtain another at the like requisition, if any such freeholder make affidavit, before a justice, that he hath cause to suspect some of the cattle to be distempered. Such bill of health shall not be given, in either case, before ed. two disinterested freeholders, appointed by warrant of a justice, shall have viewed the cattle, and reported them to be free from distemper. A freeholder refusing to obey such warrant, shall be amerced by the justice granting such warrant, in any sum not exceeding twenty five shillings. If the cattle appear by the report to be distempered, the owner may impound them; and if he Proceedings refuse to do so, or if he suffer them to escape from the found distempound, before a justice shall have certified that they pered. may be removed without annoying others, the same justice, or some other to whom information shall be given of the fact, shall, by his order, cause them to be slaughtered, and their carcases, with the hides on, but so cut or mangled that none may be tempted to take them up and flay them, to be buried four feet deep.--Those who shall be employed in executing such orders, shall receive five shillings for every head so buried, to be paid by the county wherein it shall happen; and every one appointed by the order, who shall refuse or neglect to execute it, shall be amerced in the sum of five shillings for every head so ordered to be buried.----

where cattle

cattle to con

Owners of Every one shall so restrain his distempered cattle, or distempered such as are under his care, as that they may not go at fine them; & large off the land to which they belong, and when they when dead, die, shall bury them with their hides, in manner aforebury them. said; and knowingly offending in either of those instances, shall be amerced in the sum of twenty shillings for every head they shall neglect so to bury.

1. This act shall commence and be in force Commence froin and after the first day of January, one thousand ment of act. seven hundred and eighty-seven.

CHAP. LXXIII.

From Rev. An act for improving the breed of

Bills of 1779,

ch. XLII.

to run at

Jarge.

horses.

I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That no Penalty for person shall suffer a stoned horse of the age of two suffering a stoned horse years, whereof he is owner, or hath the keeping, to run at large out of the enclosed ground of the owner or keeper; and whosoever shall wilfully or negligently do so, after having been admonished to confine such horse, shall forfeit and pay five pounds, to him who will sue for it, and double that sum for any such transgression When for- after one conviction; and, if after a second conviction, feited. the same horse be found so running at large, it shall be lawful for the person who will take him up, to retain him to his own use.

II. This act shall commence and be in force from Commence and after the first day of January, one thousand seven ment of act. hundred and eighty-seven.