hereafter mentioned, and deposit it in the hands of some one of their body, to be by them chosen, who shall proceed therewith to recruit a man to serve in the continental army until the last day of December one thousand seven hundred and eighty one. Provided, That he shall not enlist a man out of any other division than his own, until such division shall have procured a man for itself. And to prevent fraud or collusion herein, any person liable to assessment, for reimbursing the said sum, or any other person on his or her behalf, shall have the right at any time of examining the same, and enquiring into the manner of contribution and collection. The said recruiting officer shall be furnished by the said commissioners of the tax with a list of the last taxes paid on the property within his district, who shall thereupon proceed to collect or distrain for the money so advanced, making such taxes the rule of proportion, and shall pay the money collected to those who may have advanced the same for the purposes aforesaid, after deducting their rateable proportion thereout. The county lieutenant or other commanding of ficer of the county or corporation shall assemble, on cruited in the said thirtieth day, his militia at such place as he 30 days, to shall appoint; and if any division shall then fail to de- be drafted. liver a recruit as aforesaid, the said commanding officer, together with the field officers and captains of the county, or a majority of them, shall immediately pro

If not re

ceed to draft an able bodied man by fair and impare Term of sertial lot out of such division, to serve in the continental vice. army for the term aforesaid; who may nevertheless be permitted to procure an able bodied man in his room;

and any person who, either before or after the said Substitutes draft, shall enlist an able bodied soldier to serve in his admitted. stead during the war, shall, upon delivering him to the county lieutenant or commanding officer of the militia. of his county or corporation, and taking his receipt, be exempted from all future drafts, except in case of actual invasion; the soldier so enlisted shall receive the bounty allowed by this act, and be marched with the other recruits in the manner herein after directed. No man shall be drafted, unless it shall appear to the said commanding officer that he possesses bodily ability to discharge the duty of a soldier; neither shall any recruit be accepted of in a division by the said commanding officer, uuless he be an able bodied man,

Bounty.

Place of rendezvous.

Returns to

governor.

And in order to encourage the said men to enlist, or to furnish them with a present support when drafted, that blank loan office certificates of one thousand pounds of nett inspected tobacco each, equal to the number of men required from any county or corpora tion, shall be transmitted to the respective commanding officers of the militia, who shall pay one of the said certificates to each of the said recruits or drafts, which said certificates shall be payable to the said recruits or draft holding the same, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, at the end of the term for which he was enlisted.

And be it enacted, That the commanding officer of each county may furlough the soldiers obtained by this act on the day of the draft aforesaid for the space of ten days, after which he shall direct them to rendezvous at some convenient place in the county, from whence the said commanding officer shall cause the said recruits to be marched, under an officer of his militia, either to Fredericksburg, the town of Richmond, Winchester, Accomack courthouse, Alexandria, or - Staunton, as may be most convenient to the county from whence they go; at which respective places the governour, with the advice of council, will appoint proper officers to review and receive them, and also give necessary orders for furnishing the said recruits on their march with provisions that may be obtained under an act of the present session entitled "An act for procuring a supply of provisions and other neçessaries for the use of the army."

And be it farther enacted, That exact returns shall be made to be made to the governour by the several commanding officers of the militia, before the next session of assem bly, of the number of their respective divisions, together with receipts for the men by them actually furnished, who shall also transmit to the auditors of publick accounts, the names of the recruits and drafts to whom any of the aforesaid tobacco certificates are paid and delivered, returning such of them as remain undisposed of to the said auditors, to enable them to adjust and Pines for de- settle the accounts thereof on their books. Every perlinquencies. son failing to do his duty as herein directed, shall, for

feit and pay the following sums of tobacco, to wit: A county lieutenant or commanding officer shall forfeit five thousand pounds; a field officer, magistrate,

or commissioner, three thousand; and each captain, two thousand five hundred pounds of tobacco, to be recovered with costs in the court of the county where such delinquent resides, on bill, plaint, or information, and to be applied, one half to the informer, and the other to the lessening the levy of his county.

And be it also enacted, That if any division previous A division or to the day of draft, or any soldier after he is drafted, draft produshall apprehend and deliver to the commanding officer cing a deserin any county, a deserter from the continental army from service ter, relieved or from the troops of this commonwealth, and shall moreover cause such deserter to be conveyed to jail, therein to be secured by the warrant of such commanding officer, such division or draught upon producing a receipt for such deserter from the sheriff or jailer, shall be entitled to a discharge from finding a soldier or personally serving, and such deserter shall be marched with the recruits and drafts aforesaid, to one of the places of delivery herein before directed. And such commanding officer shall in his return made to the governour, particularly note the deserters so as aforesaid obtained.

And be it farther enacted, That if any person shall Mutiny, how on the day appointed for the draft, behave himself mu- punishable. tinously or riotously, and endeavour to excite mutiny, riot, or resistance to the execution of this law, that each and every person or persons so misbehaving, shall be, and they are hereby declared soldiers for the war, in this state's quota of continental troops; and for the purpose of enquiring into such offences, if any such there shall be, the commanding officer of any county where · such misconduct shall take place, shall call a courtmartial of the field officers and captains of the county, or a majority of them, within three days after such draft, and upon due enquiry and proof produced of any such offender, the said court shall have power, and they are hereby directed to cause such offenders to be . arrested and conveyed with the recruits obtained by Quakers or this act, to Fredericksburg, Richmond, Winchester, Menonists Accomack courthouse, Alexandria, or Staunton, and drafted, exdelivered with them. Be it farther enacted, That any personal ser empted from Quaker or Menonist who shall be so drafted, shall be vice, but a discharged from personal service, and that the com- substitute to manding officer at the time of such draft, shall and he be provided is hereby empowered and required to employ any two of society.

at expense

Allowance

vice.

or more discreet persons, to procure on the best terms they can, a proper substitute or substitutes to serve in his or their room, and to adjust and divide the charge thereof among all the members of the society of Quakers or Menonists, in the division to which such draft belongs, in proportion to their assessable property, and to authorize the sheriff of the county by warrant under his hand, to levy such charge by distress in case of any member refusing or neglecting to make payment thereof within five days after the same shall have been demanded, upon the goods and chattels of the person so refusing or neglecting; and for the more easy execution whereof, the Quakers and Menonists shall be placed together as near as the nature of the case will admit in the same divisions.

And be it farther enacted, That the county courts to widows & may, and they are hereby empowered to grant allowaged parents ances to the widows and aged parents of any soldier of soldiers who hath or may hereafter die in actual service, upon dying in ser. proof to them made that such widows or aged parents are so poor that they cannot maintain themselves; such allowance not to exceed one barrel of corn and fifty pounds of nett pork, for each person in such family annually, in lieu of any other provision heretofore made.

Act exempt

And be it further enacted, That so much of the miing millers, litia law as exempts millers and persons employed in and persons employed in iron works (except the iron works belonging to the iron works publick) shall be, and the same is hereby repealed.

(except for

the public) repealed.

CHAP. XIII.

An act the more effectually to prevent and punish desertion.

Deserters,

WHEREAS many of the soldiers in the immediate service of this commonwealth, and in the battalions how apprebelonging to this state in the continental army, have hended and deserted therefrom, to the dishonour and great injury dealt with. thereof; and as the laws already made are found to be insufficient to deter from desertion, or for the effectual apprehending, securing, and sending deserters to their several companies, from whence they have or shall desert: Therefore Be it enacted by the general assembly of this commonwealth, That the commanding officer of every militia company within this state be, and they are hereby directed and empowered to apprehend, all deserters from the continental army, or from the troops in the service of this state that may reside or come within their respective districts, and to command the assistance of the militia, if necessary, for that purpose, and deliver him or them so apprehended, if from the continental line, to some continental officer, or if from the state troops to some officer in the said service within the county, and in either case where there shall be no officer or post within fifty miles of the place where such deserter shall be apprehended, the deserter shall be committed to the jail of the county, there to remain until he shall be removed by some continental officer, or by order of the executive power of the state; and the jailer is hereby directed to advertise such deserter four times in the Virginia gazette; that the person conveying and delivering such deserter over and above a reward of sixty pounds for apprehending, shall be paid by the treasurer of this commonwealth, on certificate from the proper officer, or jailer, after the rate of one dollar per mile for his trouble and expense; and the jailer shall be paid his legal fees out of the publick treasury.

And be it farther enacted, That if any commanding Penalty for officer of a company of militia within this state, shall failing to apneglect to perform the duty by this act enjoined, he or they for every such neglect, shall severally forfeit

prehend deserter.