A. D. 1721. like value in rice, wares, merchandizes or other commodities whatsoever, and so rateably or above twenty shillings for making or renewing the bond or bill concerning the same, shall forfeit for every such offence one hundred pounds current money, and have imprisonment for six months; the one moyety of all which forfeitures to be to the King our Sovereign Lord, his heirs and successors, for the publick use of this government, to be paid to the Publick Receiver, and the other moyety to him or them that will sue for the same in any Court of Record within the same, by action of debt, suit, bill, plaint or information, wherein no essoign, privilege, injunction, stay or prosecution of wager of law, shall be admitted or allowed of. Charlestown, September the 15th, 1721. JA. MOORE, Speaker. Assented to by FR. NICHOLSON, GOVERNOUr. NOTE.-See Act of 13th February, 1719, No. 414, and the Editor's observations thereon on Usury laws. No. 444. Preamble. The Parish of St. George to be bounded as herein is expressed. Bounds of the said Parish. At a General Assembly begun at Charlestown, the twenty-seventh day of July, in the seventh year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, &c. Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and twenty-one. AN ACT TO ALTER THE BOUNDS OF ST. GEORGE'S PARISH. WHEREAS, the lines of St. George's Parish, as they were settled by an Act of the General Assembly of this Province, ratified the eleventh day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventeen, will prove very prejudicial and inconvenient to the inhabitants of the said Parish; therefore, for the preventing such inconveniences and prejudices, we humbly pray your Majesty that it may be enacted, I. And be it enacted by his Excellency Francis Nicholson, Esq. Governour, &c. by and with the advice and consent of his Majesties honourable Council and the Assembly of this Province, and by the authority of the same, That the several bounds and dividing lines hereafter mentioned and expressed, shall remain and forever hereafter continue and be the bounds and dividing lines of the said Parish of St. George's, any law or laws of this Province heretofore past, to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. II. Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That St. George's Parish aforesaid, shall be bounded on the south side of Ashley river, with a south-west line from the plantation of Mr. Richard Bedon inclusive, to the bounds of Colleton county, on the north side of the said river by a northeast line from the plantation of William Baker, deceased, inclusive, to the bounds of St. James's Goose Creek, and on all other parts by the same bounds the aforesaid Parish of St. Andrews was formerly bounded. Charlestown, September the 15th, 1721. JA. MOORE, Speaker. Assented to by FR. NICHOLSON, GOVERNOur. AN ACT for maintaining a Watch and keeping good order in (Ratified the 15th of September, 1721. See T. A. No. 28. See last volume.) A. D. 1721. No. 445. At u general Assembly begun at Charlestown, the twenty-seventh day of July, ADJUDGED CAPABLE OF CHOOSING OR BEING CHOSEN MEMBERS OF THE No. 446. WHEREAS, the choosing members of the Commons House of Assembly for this Province, by parishes or precincts, has been found by experience to be the most just and least expensive method that can be Preamble. devised, and approaches nearest to the form and method of choosing or electing members in other his Majesties dominions and plantations, and not liable to the inconveniencies that attend any other method heretofore used or practised in this Province; therefore for preserving the same inviolable, we humbly pray your most sacred Majesty that it may be enacted, the manner and I. And be it enacted by his Excellency Francis Nicholson, Esq. Gov- Members of ernour, &c. by and with the advice and consent of his Majestie's honour- Assembly to be able Council and the Assembly of this Province, and by the Authority of chosen after the same, That the persons who shall be chosen to serve as members of at the places Assembly after the ratification of this Act, shall be elected and chosen appointed by after the manner and at the places appointed by this Act. this Act. when to be is and how to be 11. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all writs for the future elections of members of Assembly, shall be issued out by the Writs for electGovernour and Council for the time being, and shall bear date forty days ing members of before the day appointed for the meeting of the said members, and shall Assembly, be directed to the church-warden or church-wardens of the several par- sued; to whom ishes hereafter named, or in case there should be wanting church-wardens to be directed, in any parish, then to such other proper persons as the Governour and executed. Council shall think fit to nominate in the said writs, to manage such elections, every one of whom are hereby impowered and required to execute the said writs faithfully according to the true intent and meaning of this Act, to which every such person shall be sworn by any one justice of the peace for the county, who is hereby required to administer such oath without fee or reward, and shall give publick notice in writing of all and every such writs, two Sundays before the appointed time of election, at the door of each parish church, or at some other publick place as shall be appointed in the said writs, in such parishes as have yet no churches erected, to the intent the time and place of election may be better and more fully made known, which writs shall be executed upon the same days at all places where elections are appointed. A. D. 1721. III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That every free white man, and no other person, professing the Christian religion, Qualifications who has attained to the age of one and twenty years, and hath been a resiof the electors. dent and an inhabitant in this Province for the space of one whole year before the date of the writs for the election he offers to give his vote at, and hath a freehold of at least fifty acres of land, or hath been taxed in the precedent year twenty shillings, or is taxed twenty shillings the year present, to the support of this Government, shall be deemed a person qualified to vote for, and may be capable of electing a representative or representatives to serve as a member or members of the Commons House of Assembly, for the parish or precinct wherein he actually is a resident, or in any other parish or precinct wherein he hath the like qualification. Manner of voting. How the election is to be managed. Notice to be given to the persons elected. IV. And for the preventing of frauds in all elections, as much as possible, it is hereby enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the names of the electors for members of the Commons House of Assembly, shall be fairly entered in a book or roll, for that purpose provided by the churchwardens, or other persons appointed for managing elections, to prevent any person's voting twice at the same election; and the manner of their voting shall be as herein after is directed, that is to say, each person qualified to vote as is above directed, shall put into a box, glass or sheet of paper, prepared for that purpose by the said churchwardens, or other persons, as is above directed, a piece of paper rolled up, wherein is written the names of the Representatives he votes for, and to which paper the elector shall not be obliged to subscribe his name; and if upon the scrutiny two or more papers with persons written thereon for members of Assembly, be found rolled up together, or more persons names be found written in any paper than ought to be voted for, all and every such paper or papers shall be invalid and of no effect; and that those persons, who after all the papers and votes are delivered in and entered as aforesaid, shall be found (upon the scrutiny made) to have the majority of votes, are and shall be deemed and declared to be members of the succeeding Commons House of Assembly, so as they be qualified as is hereinafter directed. V. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said election shall not continue longer than two days, and that the said elections shall begin at nine in the morning, and end at four in the evening, and that at adjourning of the poll at convenient hours, in the time of the aforesaid election, the church-wardens or other persons as aforesaid, impowered to manage the said elections, shall seal up the said box, glass or paper wherein are put all the votes then delivered in and rolled up by the electors as aforesaid, with their own seals and the seals of any two or more of the electors that are there present, and upon opening the poll shall unseal the said box, glass or paper in the presence of the said electors, in order to proceed in the said election. VI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said church-wardens, or other persons appointed in each parish to manage the elections aforesaid, shall within seven days after the scrutiny is made, give publick notice in writing at the church door, or at such other publick places in the parishes that have no churches, where the election was made, to the person or persons so elected, that the inhabitants of the said parish have made choice of him or them, to serve as their Representative or Representatives in the next succeeding Commons House of Assembly, under the penalty of one hundred pounds current money of this Province, for his default or neglect therein, to be recovered A. D. 1721. and disposed of in such manner and form as is hereafter in this Act directed. 1 tives to be VII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the inhabitants of the several parishes in this Province, qualified to vote for Number of members of Assembly, as is before in this Act directed, shall upon the Representadays of election, according to the Governour's and Council's precept for chosen. the time being, meet at their respective parish churches, or at some other publick place in such parishes as have not yet any churches erected in them, as shall be appointed by the said precept, and there proceed to chuse their Representatives according to the Number following, that is to say: the parish of St. Philip's Charlestown, five members; for the parish of Christ Church, two members; for the parish of St. John's, three members; for the parish of St. Andrew's, three members; for the parish of St. George's, two members; for the parish of St. James Goose Creek, four members; for the parish of St. Thomas and St. Dennis, three members, the election to be made at the parish church of St. Thomas; for the parish of St. Paul's, four members; for the parish of St. Bartholomew's, at such place in the said parish as shall be appointed by the Governour and Council's precept, (until the parish church is erected) four members; for the parish of St. Helena, four members, the election to be made at Beauford in the said parish; and for the parish of St. James Santee, with Winyaw, two members. And the said several members, who upon a scrutiny, are found to have the majority of votes, so as they are qualified as is hereinafter directed, shall be and they are hereby declared and adjudged to be the true Representatives for the said parish. VIII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That every person who shall be elected and returned as is before directed by this Act, Qualifications to serve as a member of the Commons House of Assembly, shall be qual- of the elected. ified as followeth, viz: He shall be a free born subject of the kingdom of Great Britain, or of the dominions thereunto belonging, or a foreign person naturalized by Act of Parliament in Great Britain or Ireland, that hath attained to the age of twenty-one years, and hath been resident in this Province for twelve months before the date of the said writs, and having in this Province a settled plantation or free-hold, in his own right, of at least five hundred acres of land, and ten slaves, or has in his own proper person, and in his own right, to the value of one thousand pounds in houses, buildings, town lots or other lands in any part of this Province. IX. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That any of his Majesty's justices of the peace returned to serve as a member of the Qualification said Commons House of Assembly, shall read over to the rest of the oath. members returned to serve in the said House, before they be admitted to sit as such, the last mentioned qualifying clause, and then each member before he be admitted to sit as such in the said House, shall take the following oath on the holy evangelists. I, A B, do sincerely swear, that I am duly qualified to be chosen and serve as a member of the Commons House of Assembly of this Province, for the parish of accord ing to the true intent and meaning of this Act, so help me God. X. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if new writ to be any member or members hereafter chosen to serve in any Commons House In case of deatn of Assembly, should die, or depart this Province, or refuse to qualify him or refusal, a or themselves as in this Act directed, or be expelled by the said House of is issued. Commons, then and in such cases the said House shall by message to the Governour and Council for the time being, desire them to issue out a new VOL. III.-18. A. D. 1721. writ or writs, and the said Governour and Council shall on such a message to them presented, issue out a new writ or writs, directed as before in this Act is appointed, for chusing another person or persons to serve in the place or places of such member or members so dead or departed this Province, or who shall refuse to qualify him or themselves, or be expelled as aforesaid; which person or persons so chosen and summoned as before directed, shall attend the Commons House of Assembly, as by the precept is directed, under the same fines and penalties the several churchwardens, or other persons appointed to manage elections according to the directions of this Act, are liable to by the said Act. member. XI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all and Power and pri- every member and members of the Commons House of Assembly of this vilege of such Province, chosen by virtue of this Act, shall have as much power and priviledge to all intents and purposes, as any member or members of the Commons House of Assembly of this Province, heretofore of right had, might, could or ought to have in the said Province; provided the same are such as are according to his Majesty's thirty-fifth instruction. Penalty for mismanagement at elections. Managers of elections shall attend the Commons House the two first days of their sitting. XII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person or persons appointed by this Act to manage any election for a member or members of the Commons House of Assembly, as aforesaid, shall willingly or knowingly admit of or take the vote of any person not qualified according to the purport of this Act, or after any vote delivered in at such election, shall open or suffer any person whatsoever to open any such vote, before the scrutiny is begun to be made, or shall make an undue return of any person for a member of the Commons House of Assembly, each person so offending, shall forfeit for each such vote taken and admitted of, opened or suffered to be opened as aforesaid, and for each such return, the sum of one hundred pounds current money of this Province, to be recovered and disposed of in such manner and form as hereafter in this Act is directed. XIII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all and every person and persons appointed to take votes, or to manage elections of members to serve in the Commons House of Assembly as aforesaid, shall for that purpose attend at the time and place of election according as he or they are directed by the said writs, and attend likewise on the said Commons House of Assembly the two first days of their sitting (unless he or they have leave sooner to depart) to inform them of all such matters and disputes that did arise, or may have arisen about the election of any member or members to serve as aforesaid, or at any place or places where the same was or were appointed to be managed, and shall shew to said House the list of the votes of every person returned to be a Representative to serve as aforesaid, or which otherwise ought to have been returned as such, (if any complaint of a false return has been made to the Commons House of Assembly) and every person appointed to take votes as aforesaid, who shall omit or refuse to attend at either of the times and places as aforesaid, shall forfeit the sum of ten pounds current money of this Province, to be recovered and disposed of in such manner and form as is hereafter directed by this Act. XIV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any Persons guilty person or persons whatsoever, shall on any day appointed for the election of illegal prac of a member or members of the Commons House of Assembly as aforetions how to be said, presume to violate the freedom of the said election by any airest, punished. tices at the elec menaces or threats, or endeavor or attempt to over-awe, fright or force any person qualified to vote against his inclination or conscience, or otherwise by bribery obtain any vote, or who shall after the said election is over, |