hands of the treasurer, over and above the said payment, a ballance of one thousand five hundred pounds at the least, then every burgess elected and serving for a county or corporation within this dominion should be paid out of the public money the sum of ten shillings for each day he should serve in the house of Burgesses, with such further allowances, and under such restrictions and regulations as in the said act is at large mentioned.

II. And whereas upon examination of the treasurer's accounts, it appears that there is not money sufficient in his bands to pay the burgesses wages for this present session of assembly, leaving in the hands of the treasurer a balance of one thousand five hundred pounds according to the directions of the said act: Nevertheless, as the payment of the said wages in money, in this time of scarcity, will be a great ease to the poorer sort of people, by lessening the levy by the pall, Be it therefore enacted, by the Lieutenant Governor, Council, and Burgesses. of this present General Assembly, and it is hereby enacted, by the authority of the same, That the burgesses wages for this present session of assembly shall be paid by the treasurer, out of the public money in his hands, on or before the twenty-fifth day of April, one thousand seven hundred and sixty, according to the directions and regulations in the said recited act mentioned, any thing in the said act to the contrary thereof in any ways notwithstanding.

CHAP. XXXIV.

An Act to enable the executors of the will of John Spotswood, esquire, deceased, to pay the debts and legacies due from the estate of major-general Alexander Spotswood, any for other purposes therein mentioned.

I. WHEREAS major general Alexander Spots- Executors of wood was at the time of his death seized and possess- John Spots

certain lands

of debts and

neral Alex

ander Spottwood.

wood autho- ed of a large tract of land, lying in the county of Spotrised to sell sylvania, whereon he had erected works for casting in Spotsylva- pig iron, and employed therein the greatest part of nia, Orange, his slaves; and was also seized of a large tract of land, & Culpeper, lying in the counties of Orange and Culpeper on which for payment he had placed some tenants at an annual rent: And legacies, due being so seized made his last will and testament, in f-om estate writing, bearing date the nineteenth day of April, one of major-ge- thousand seven hundred and forty, and therein did give and devise to his eldest son John Spotswood, esquire, all his said lands and his working slaves in tail, with several remainders over, in case his said son should die without issue; but impowered his executors to lease out any of his said lands, his said mine tract excepted, for years, or for life or lives, upon such conditions, with such covenants and reservations of rents, for the benefit of his said son, as he the said testator had theretofore leased any of his said lands. And the said testator did further give and devise to his son Robert Spotswood the sum of three thousand pounds sterling, payable at his attaining the age of twentyone years; and to his two daughters, Anna Catherina and Dorothea, the sum of two thousand pounds sterling each, payable at their respectively arriving to the age of twenty-one years, or marriage, which said sums of seven thousand pounds were to be raised by mortgage or sale of any of his the testator's lands devised to his said son John, his mine tract excepted; and that so much as should seem proper to his wife, for the maintenance and education of his said three younger children until their fortunes should become payable respectively, should be annually paid out of the growing rents and profits of his said lands. And he the said testator did further direct that all the tradesmen and servants, stocks of cattle, horses and hogs, all waggons, carts, and carriages, implements of husbandry and handycraft, and all household furniture which should be employed or any way used in and upon the said mine tract, at the time of his death, should continue thereon and be employed therein until his said son John attained to the age of twenty-one years, when he gave the same to his said son John, requesting and desiring his said son John, in case he should attain to that age, and die without issue male, that he would give the said servants, stocks and goods to his aforesaid son Robert, so that the said iron works might be

carried on and improved according to his intention. And further, the said testator did give and devise to his executors his two cabinets of plate, weighing one thousand and eighty-nine ounces of silver, upon the special trust and confidence that they should permit and suffer his wife to have the use thereof during her natural life, and after her decease to go to his said son John, in case he should arrive to the age of twenty-one years, but if he should die before such age to his said son Robert, always desiring that the said cabinets of plate might descend and continue as heirlooms in his family; and after some other small legacies did give the rest of his estate, which was inconsiderable, to be equally divided between his said wife and children; and appointed bis said wife, Elliot Benger, gentleman, and Robert Rose, clerk, executors during the minority of his said son John, as by the said will, remaining of record, in the said county court of Orange, may more fully appear.

II. And whereas in the acquisition of the lands aforesaid, and the setting up the said iron-works, the said major-general Spotswood became, and was at the time of his death, considerably indebted to sundry persons in Great-Britain and this colony, and had moreover on his marriage with his said wife settled on her an annuity of five hundred pounds sterling for life, for her jointure in case she should survive him, so that the profits of the estate devised to the said John Spotswood was so far from paying his father's debts, and raising the younger children's fortunes during his minority, that when he arrived to the age of twentyone years, and the accounts of the executors were settled by order of the general court, such profits fell about three thousand pounds short of paying the said annuity, the maintenance of the children; and the necessary expences of the said estate, which sum the said John Spotswood was by decree of the said court obliged to pay, besides being liable for the said debts and fortunes which were greatly encreased by the growing interest thereof.

III. And whereas the said daughters, Anna Catherina and Dorothea, having respectively married, be• came entitled to their fortunes, and the said John Spotswood not being able to borrow money upon the security of his lands to discharge the same, used his utmost endeavours to sell as much of the said Orange

and Culpeper lands as would raise the said fortunes and the interest thereof, and frequently advertised public sales thereof, at which he sold ten thousand seven hundred and eleven acres to different persons, for about three thousand pounds current money in the whole, all of which lands he conveyed to the several purchasers, except a tract of about seventeen hundred and fifty acres, purchased by James Hunter, merchant, lying in the county of Culpeper, containing the tenements on which Robert Slaughter, junior, Christopher Thrailkill and Thomas Jerdone then lived, and all the waste lands of the said Spotswood, lying within and adjoining to the lines of the lands of William Rown, Charles Xavenaugh, John Favers, John Parks, William Williams, Robert Coleman Gains, and Clayton Margaret Griffin, Daniel Brown, Philip Rootes, gentleman, John Thompson, Reuben Long, and John Reynolds, for which land the said James Hunter paid the consideration money, but had no conveyance for the same; and the money raised by the sale of the several lands aforesaid being greatly short of the amount of the said daughters fortunes, and several decrees and judgments having passed against the said John Spotswood, as well for the balance thereof as for his father's debts which he had no present means of discharging, he was therefore obliged to draw several bills of exchange upon merchants in Great-Britain no way indebted to him, thereby to gain time and devise some means of raising the money so recovered of him, which bills were returned protested and now remain unsatisfied.

IV. And whereas the said Robert Spotswood, the son, having attained to the age of twenty one years, became entitled to his fortune, and did agree to accept of, and the said John Spotswood accordingly made and executed a mortgage of all the said lands in the counties of Orange and Culpeper, to hold to him the said Robert Spotswood, his executors, administrators or assigns, until the rents and profits thereof should fully satisfy and pay the said fortune of three thousand pounds and the interest thereof.

V. And whereas it manifestly appears to have been the intention and will of major general Spotswood, that his debts and younger childrens fortunes should be chargeable on that part of his estate lying in the counties of Orange and Culpeper, and not on his mine

tract or iron-works, the profits of which he intended for his eldest son to enable him to make provision for any younger sons he might have, out of such profits, and the rather, as the said General Spotswood does not in his said will take any notice of the younger sons which his said son John might have, although he impowers him to charge the intailed estate with a fortune of one thousand pounds for each daughter he should have: Notwithstanding which all the profits of the said iron-works, from the time of the death of General Spotswood to the time of the death of the said John Spotswood, were applied towards those uses and the maintenance of the children, except what was necessary for the support of the said John Spotswood's family, and what he laid out in the purchase of about fifty slaves in order to make provision for his younger

son.

VI. And whereas the said John Spotswood is lately dead, leaving Mary his widow and four children, Alexander Spotswood, his eldest son and heir, John, Anne, and Mary Spotswood, his younger children, having first made his last will and testament, in writing, and therein, according to the power given him by his father's will, charged his intailed estate with the sum of one thousand pounds sterling for each of his said daughters, and given to his said daughter Anne a mulatto girl called Betty, and to his daughter Mary a negroe girl named Phillis, and all the rest of his estate he gave to his said younger son John Spotswood in fec-simple; but further directed, that if his son Alexander would pay to his son John one hundred pounds, that then his said son Alexander should have the lands purchased of Ambrose Grayson, adjoining the land he the testator lived on; and also that if his said son Alexander would pay his son John the value of the stocks of cattle, sheep, hogs & horses as they should be appraised, that then he the said Alexander should have the said stocks to him and his assigns for ever: And of his said will appointed John Robinson, esquire, Bernard Moore, John Champe, Edmund Pendleton, and Roger Dixon, gentlemen, and Nicholas Seward, executors, as by the said will, remaining of record, in the said county court of Spotsylvania, may more fully appear: And after the death of the said John Spotswood the said Bernard Moore alone undertook the execution of his said will. the other exe