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nour of the commonwealth of Virginia, hath hereunto
set his hand, and caused the seal of the said common-
wealth to be affixed at
day of

on the

in the year of our Lord

and of the commonwealth

A. B.

Upon which grant the said register shall endorse that How executhe party hath title to the same; whereupon it shall be ted, and resigned by the governour, sealed with the seal of the corded. commonwealth, and then entered of record at full length in good well bound books to be provided for that purpose at the publick expense and kept by the register, and being so entered, shall be certified to have been registered and then be delivered, together with the original certificate of survey to the party or his order. Where a grant shall be made to the heir or

Grants to

delivered.

$

assignee of a person claiming under any of the before heirs and asmentioned rights, the material circumstances of the ti- signees. tle shall be recited in such grant: And for preventing hasty and surreptitious grants and avoiding controversies and expensive law suits, Be it enacted, That no surveyor shall at any time within twelve months Within what time copies after the survey made, issue or deliver any certificate, of plats and copy or plat of land by him surveyed, except only to certificates the person or persons for whom the same was survey- may not be ed; or to his, her, or their order, unless a caveat shall have been entered against a grant to the person claiming under such survey, to be proved by an authentick certificate of such caveat from the clerk of the general court produced to the surveyor; and if any surveyor shall presume to issue any certificate, copy, or plat as aforesaid, to any other than the person or persons entitled thereto, every surveyor so offending shall forfeit and pay to the party injured, his or her legal representatives or assigns, fifty pounds current money every hundred acres of land contained in the survey, whereof a certificate, copy, or plat shall be so issued, or shall be liable to the action of the party injured at the common law for his or her damages at the election of the party. Any person possessing high lands, to which any swamp, marshes, or sunken grounds are marshes, & contiguous, shall have the preemption of such swamps, grounds, marshes, or sunken grounds for one year, from and preemption after the passing of this act, and if such person shall of, in owners not obtain a grant for such swamps, marshes, or sunk- of contigu. ous high en grounds within the said year, then any other per- lands.

for

Swamps,

sunken

son may enter on and obtain a grant for the same in the like manner as is directed in the case of other unapGrants for, propriated lands. But nothing herein contained shall how obtain be construed or extend to give liberty to any person

ed.

to survey, take up, or obtain a grant for any swamps, marshes, or sunken grounds lying contiguous to the high lands of any feme covert, infant under the age of twenty one years, person not being compos mentis, or person out of the commonwealth, according to the regulations of an act entitled "An act declaring who shall be deemed citizens of this commonwealth," but all such persons shall be allowed one year after the removal of their several disabilities for the preemption of such lands.

Surplus IV. And whereas, through the ignorance, negliJands, within gence, or fraud of surveyors, it may happen that divers patents, how persons now do or may hereafter hold within the bounds grants for expressed in their patents or grants, greater quanti

bounds of

obtained.

ties of land than are therein mentioned; for quieting such possessions, preventing controversies, and doing equal justice to the commonwealth and its citizens, Be it enacted, That it shall not be lawful for any person to enter for, survey, or take up, any parcel of land held as surplus in any patent or grant, except during the life time of the patentee or grantee, and before any transference, conveyance, or other alienation shall have been made of the lands contained in such patent or grant, and until the party intending to enter and take up the same, shall have given one full years notice to such patentee or grantee of such his intentions, and in case such patentee or grantee shall not within the year, obtain rights and sue forth a patent for the surplus land by him held, it shall be lawful for the person who gave notice as aforesaid, upon producing a certificate from the clerk of due proof of such notice before the court of the county wherein such patentee or grantee resides, to demand from the register of the land office, a warrant to the surveyor of the county wherein such lands lie, to resurvey at the proper charge of the person obtaining such warrant, the whole tract within the bounds of the patent or grant, and upon such persons returning into the land office a plat and certificate of such resurvey, together with the warrant on which it is founded, and obtaining and producing new rights for all the surplus land found within the said bounds,

he may sue forth and obtain a new grant for such surplus, which shall be granted to him in the same manner as waste or unappropriated lands; but the former patentee or grantee may assign such surplus land in any part of his tract as he shall think fit in one entire piece, the breadth of which shall be at least one third of the length; and in such new grant there shall be a recital of the original patent or grant, the resurvey of which the surplus was ascertained and of other material circumstances.

Remedy of landholders unjustly

V. Provided always, That if upon notice given as aforesaid, the original patentee or grantee shall within the year resurvey his tract, and it be thereupon found vexed. that he hath no more than the quantity of land expressed in his patent or grant, with the allowance herein after mentioned, the party giving such notice shall be liable to pay all charges of such resurvey, for which he shall give sufficient security to the said patentee or grantee at the time of the notice, otherwise such notice shall be void and of no effect; and moreover for his unjust vexation, shall also be liable to an action upon the case at the suit of the party grieved, and that in all such new surveys, the patentee or grantee shall have an allowance at the rate of five acres in every hundred, for the variation of instruments.

mistakes in

tents.

VI. And be it enacted, That where any person shall Method of find any mistake or uncertainty in the courses or de- rectifying scription of the bounds of his land, and desires to rec- bounds, and tify the same, or shall hold two or more tracts of land obtaining inadjoining to each other, and is desirous to include them clusive pain one grant, he may in either case, having previously advertised his intentions and the time of application, at the door of the courthouse on two several court days, and also having given notice to the owners of the adjoining lands, present a petition to the court of the county wherein such lands lie, reciting the nature and truth of the case, and such court may, and is hereby empowered to order the surveyor of their county to resurvey such lands at the charge of the party, according to his directions and the original or authentick title papers, taking care not to intrude upon the possessions of any other person, and to return a fair plat and certificate of such resurvey into the said court, to be examined and compared with the title papers; and if such court shall certify that in their opinion such

General

to cause

land office to ned, and cer

be exami

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resurvey is just and reasonable, the party may return the same, together with his material title papers in the land office, and demand the register's receipt for them; and in case any caveat shall be entered against his obtaining a new grant upon such resurvey, the same proceedings shall be had therein as is directed in the case of other caveats, and the general court upon hearing the same, may either prohibit such new grant, or vacate the caveat as to them shall seem just; but if no caveat shall be entered within six months after such return, or if a caveat shall be entered and vacated as aforesaid, the party upon producing new rights for whatever surplus land appears to be within the bounds, more than the before mentioned allowance of five acres for every hundred, may sue out and obtain a new grant for such lands thereupon, in which shall be recited the dates and other material circumstances of the former title, and the title papers shall be delivered by the register to the new owner. The judges of the gecourt yearly neral court shall once in every year and oftener if they see cause, appoint two or more capable persons to examine the record books and papers in the land office, and report in what condition and order they are kept, who shall compare all warrants of survey returned to the said office executed, with the list of those issued therefrom, and cancel all such as shall appear to have been properly executed or exchanged, an account of which shall be kept by the register, charging therein those issued, and giving credit for those cancelled as Treasurer to aforesaid. The treasurer for the time being shall angive bond,to nually enter into bond with sufficient security to the governour in the sum of one hundred thousand pounds, for the just and faithful accounting for according to law, all money which shall come to his hands by virtue of this act. And that the proprietors of lands within this commonwealth may no longer be subject to any servile, feudal, or precarious tenure, and to prevent the danger to a free state from perpetual revenue; Quitrents & Be it enacted, That the reservation of royal mines of reservations quitrents, and all other reservations and conditions in in the royal the patents or grants of land from the crown of Engrants abolgland or of Great Britain, under the former governished. ment, shall be, and are hereby declared null and void; and that all lands thereby respectively granted, shall be held in absolute and unconditional property to all

tain warrants, &c. cancelled.

account for

money accruing under this act.

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abolished.

Stealing or

an instru

ment for

gister's offi cial seal, fel. ony, without

intents and purposes whatsoever, in the same manner with the lands hereafter to be granted by the commonwealth by virtue of this act; and no petition for lapsed Petitions for land shall be admitted or received for or on account of lapsed land any failure or forfeiture whatsoever, alledged to have been made or incurred after the twenty ninth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy five. And be it farther enacted, That he or she be adjudged a felon and not have the forging and benefit of clergy, who shall steal, or by other means warrant, &c. take from the possession or-custody of another, any or keeping warrant from the register of the land office of this commonwealth, to authorize a survey of waste and unap- counterfeit. propriated lands; or who shall alter, erase, or aid or ing the reassist in the alteration or erasement of any such warrant; or forge or counterfeit, or aid, abet, or assist in forging or counterfeiting any written or printed paper, clergy. purporting to be such warrant; or who shall transfer to the use of another, or for his or her own use, present or cause to be presented to the register for the exchange thereof, or to a surveyor for the execution thereof, any such warrant or paper purporting to be such warrant, knowing the same so transferred or presented for the exchange or the execution thereof to be stolen, or by other means taken from the possession or custody of another, or altered or erased, or forged or counterfeited; and he or she shall be adjudged a felon and not have the benefit of clergy, who shall falsely make or counterfeit, or aid, abet, or assist, in safely keeping or counterfeiting any instrument stamping an impression in the figure and likeness of the seal officially used by the register of the land office, or who shall have in his or her possession or custody such instrument, and shall wilfully conceal the same, knowing it to be falsely made or counterfeited. So much of all former acts of assembly as concern or relate to the entering, taking up, or seating lands, or direct the mode of proceeding in any case provided for by this act, shall be, and are hereby repealed.

Repeal of former acts.

VOL. X.

1

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