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Vacancy, how suppli

ed.

sist in executing the business of the said office, but shall nevertheless reside there himself. If any vacancy shall happen by the death, resignation, or removal of a register during the recess of the general assembly, the governour or first magistrate of the commonwealth, by and with the advice of the council, may appoint some other person, giving bond and security in like manner, to act as register of the said office until the end of the next session of assembly. All copies of the records and other papers of the said office, or of the tested by records and papers hereby directed to be removed from him, as good the secretary's office and lodged therein, duly attested by such register, shall be as good evidence as the ori- originals. ginals would be.

Copies at

evidence as

evidence

11, And whereas a certain bounty in lands hath been Land bounengaged to the troops on continental establishment ties, on what raised by the ordinances of convention or the laws of obtained. this commonwealth, and to the troops upon Virginia establishment: Be it enacted, That the officers and soldiers of the said troops, as well as the officers and soldiers to whom a bounty in lands may, or shall be hereafter allowed by any law of this commonwealth, shall be entitled to the quantity of waste or unappropriated lands respectively engaged to them by such laws, a commissioned officer or his heirs, upon certificate from any general officer of the Virginia line, or the commanding officer of the troops on the Virginia establishment as the case may be, and a non-commissioned officer or soldier, or his heirs, upon certificate from the colonel or commanding officer of the regiment, or corps to which they respectively belonged, that such officer or soldier hath served the time required by law, or hath been slain or died in the service, distinguishing particularly the time such officer or soldier hath served, and in what regiment or corps such service hath been performed, or death happened; and upon making proof before any court of record within this commonwealth by the persons own oath, or other satisfactory evidence of the truth and authenticity of the said certificate, and that the party had never before proved or claimed his right to land for the service therein mentioned, which proof the clerk of the court before whom it shall be made, is hereby empowered and required to endorse and certify upon the original certificate, making an entry or minute thereof in his

ated lands may be ac. quired.

order book and recording the same; and every countycourt shall annually, in the month of October, send to the register's office, a list of all certificates granted by their respective county courts upon any of the before mentioned rights, there to be recorded. And for creHow title to ating a sinking fund in aid of the annual taxes to disunappropri- charge the publick debt: Be it enacted, That any person may acquire title to so much waste and unappropriated land as he or she shall desire to purchase, on paying the consideration of forty pounds for every hundred acres, and so in proportion for a greater or smaller quantity, and obtaining certificate from the publick auditors in the following manner: The consideration money shall be paid into the hands of the treasurer, who shall thereupon give to the purchaser a receipt for the payment, specifying the purpose it was made for, which being delivered to the auditors, they shall give to such person a certificate thereof, with the quantity of land he or she is thereby entitled to.

Land war. rants, how obtained, located, and executed.

III. And be it enacted, That upon application of any person or persons, their heirs or assigns, having title to waste or unappropriated lands, either by military rights or treasury rights, and lodging in the land office a certificate thereof, the register of the said office shall grant to such person or persons a printed warrant under his hand and the seal of his office, specifying the quantity of land and the rights upon which it is due, authorizing any surveyor duly qualified according to law, to lay off and survey the same, and shall regularly enter and record in the books of his office, all such certificates and 'the warrants issued thereupon, which warrants shall be always good and valid until executed by actual survey, or exchanged in the manner herein after directed; provided that no warrant on treasury rights, other than preemption warrants, to be obtained by virtue of this act, shall be granted or issued before the fifteenth day of October next; nor shall the surveyor of any county admit the entry or location of any warrant on treasury rights, except preemption warrants, in his books, before the Exchange first day of May next. Any person holding a land warrant upon any of the before mentioned rights, may have the same executed in one or more surveys, and in such case, or where the lands on which any warrant is located shall be insufficient to satisfy such war

Warrants,

1

rant, the party may have the said warrant exchanged by the register of the land office for others of the same amount in the whole, but divided as best may answer the purposes of the party, or entitle him to so much land elsewhere as will make good the deficiency. A surveyor shall be appointed in every county, to be Surveyors & their depunominated, examined, and certified able by the presi- ties, how ap dent and professors of William and Mary college, and pointed and if of good character, commissioned by the governour, qualified. with a reservation in such commission to the said professors, for the use of the college, of one sixth part of the legal fees which shall be received by such surveyor, for the yearly payment of which, he shall give bond with sufficient security to the president and masters of the said college. He shall hold his office during good behaviour; shall reside within his county; and before he shall be capable of entering upon the execution of his office, shall before the court of the same county, take an oath and give bond with two sufficient sureties, to the governour and his successours, in such sum as he, with advice of his council, shall have directed for the faithful execution of his office. All deputy surveyors shall be nominated by their principals, who shall be answerable for them, examined and certified able by the president and masters of the said college, and if of good character, commissioned by the governour, and shall thereupon be entitled to one half of all fees received for services performed by them respectively, after deducting the proportion thereof due to the college. If any principal surveyor shall fail to nominate a sufficient number of deputies to perform. the services of his office in due time, the court of the county shall direct what number he shall nominate, and in case of failure, shall nominate for him. Penalty for if any deputy surveyor, or any other on his behalf, sale of office. and with his privity, shall pay or agree to pay any greater part of the profits of his office, sum of money in gross, or other valuable consideration to his principal for his recommendation or interest in procuring the deputation, such deputy and principal shall be thereby rendered for ever incapable of serving in such office; it shall not be necessary for the present chief or deputy surveyors of the several counties duly examined, commissioned, and qualified according to the laws heretofore in force, to be again commissioned

And

how to be made.

and qualified under the directions of this act, nor in cases now depending before any court within this comLocations, monwealth. Every person having a land warrant founded on any of the before mentioned rights, and being desirous of locating the same on any particular waste and unappropriated lands, shall lodge such warrant with the chief surveyor of the county wherein the said lands or the greater part of them lie, who shall give a receipt for the same if required. The party shall direct the location thereof so specially and precisely, as that others may be enabled with certainty, to locate other warrants on the adjacent residuum; which location shall bear date the day on which it shall be made, and shall be entered by the surveyor in a book to be kept for that purpose, in which there shall be left no blank leaves or spaces between the different entries. And if several persons shall apply with their warrants at the office of any surveyor at the same time to make entries, they shall be preferred according to the priority of the dates of their warrants, but if such warrants be dated on the same day, the surveyor shall settle the right of priority between such persons by Time for lot. And every surveyor shall, at the time of making surveying, entries for persons not being inhabitants of his county, when apappoint a time for surveying their land, and give nopointed. tice thereof in writing to the persons making the same. And if on such application at his office, the surveyor shall refuse to enter such location, under pretence of a prior entry for the same lands made by some other persons, he shall have a right to demand of the said surveyor a view of the original of such prior entry in No entry ad- his book, and also an attested copy of it. But it shall mitted, with- not be lawful for any surveyor to admit an entry for land without a warrant from the register of the land office, except in the particular case of certificates ment rights. from the commissioners of the county for tracts of land, not exceeding four hundred acres allowed in consideration of settlements; according to an act of assembly, entitled "An act for adjusting and settling the titles of claimants to unpatented lands, under the present and former government, previous to the establishment Certain of the commonwealth's land office." No entry or loIcation of land shall be admitted within the county and limits of the Cherokee Indians, or on the north west side of the Ohio river, or on the lands reserved by act

out a war

rant, except for settle

tracts of

country excepted from location.

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of assembly for any particular nation or tribe of Indians, or on the lands granted by law to Richard Hen

*

derson and company, or in that tract of country re- (*See vol. 9, served by resolution of the general assembly+ for the P. 571.)

The resolution above alluded to, is in the following words:
Saturday the 19th of December, 1778.

Mr. Lyne from the committee to whom the memorial of the general and field officers was referred, reported that the committee had, according to order, had the same under their consideration, and had agreed upon a report and come to several resolutions thereupon, which he read in his place, and afterwards delivered in at the clerks table where the same were again read, and are as followeth, viz.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that a certain tract of country to be bounded by the Green river and a south east course from the head thereof to the Cumberland mountains, with the said mountains to the Carolina line, with the Carolina line to the Cherokee or Tennessee river, with the said river to the Ohio river, and with the Ohio river to the said Green river, ought to be reserved for supplying the officers and soldiers in the Virgiginia line with the respective proportions of land which have Been or may be assigned to them by the general assembly, saving and reserving the land granted to Richard Henderson and company, and their legal rights to such persons as have heretofore actually located lands and settled thereon within the bounds aforesaid.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee that the said officers and soldiers, or any of them, may be at liberty to locate their proportions of land on any other vacant and ungranted Jands within this commonwealth.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that the allowance of two hundred acres of land over and above the continental bounty, be given to all the soldiers in the Virginia line, who have heretofore enlisted or shall hereafter enlist for the term of three years or during the war.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that the several commissioned and non-commiss.oned officers in the Vir. ginia line ought to have their allowance of lands increased in the same proportion as that of the soldiers are by the preceeding resolution. And whereas no provision hath been hitherto made for the general officers;

Resolved, That such general officers who were inhabitants of this state, be allowed the following proportions of land, upon the same terms and under the same restrictions with the lands en. gaged to the officers and soldiers raised in this commonwealth, that is to say, to the commander in chief to every major general brigadier general

acres.

acres,

acres, and to every

The first resolution being read a second time, was, upon the question put thereupon, agreed to by the house. Ordered, that Mr. G. Mason do carry the same to the senate and desire their concurrence. The second, third, fourth and fifth of the said resolutions, being read a second time, were ordered to lie on the

table.

[MS. Journal of the House of Delegates of October 1778, six pages from the end-the volume not being paged.]

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