fenses whatsoever and accessaries of the same which by the laws or acts of assembly of this province are declared capital, or felonies punishable by death, which already have been committed, perpetrated or done or shall hereafter be committed, perpetrated or done by any Indian or Indians within this province in places remote from inhabitants, as aforesaid, all and every such offense or offenses, in whatsoever place or county the same hath happened or shall happen, shall henceforth be inquired of, heard, adjudged and determined before the justices of the supreme court or the justices of the courts of oyer and terminer and general gaol delivery, to be held in the county of Philadelphia, by indictments, inquests and verdicts, to be taken of good and lawful men, inhabitants of the same county, in like manner and form as if such capital offense or offenses had been committed, perpetrated or done within the said county, any law or usage to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding. Passed October 19, 1744. Confirmed by the King in Council, Octo- At a General Assembly begun and holden at Philadelphia, the fourteenth day of October, A. D. 1745, and continued by adjournments until the twenty-third day of August, 1746, the following acts were passed: CHAPTER CCCLXIII. AN ACT FOR THE RE-EMITTING AND CONTINUING THE LOAN OF THE BILLS OF CREDIT OF THIS PROVINCE. Whereas by an act of general assembly of this province, made in the twelfth year of the present reign, entitled, "An act for re-printing, exchanging and re-emitting all the bills of credit of this province, and for striking the further sum of eleven thousand one hundred and ten pounds, five shillings, to be emitted upon loan,"1 bills of credit of the value of eighty thousand pounds of lawful money of America were printed and emitted, to exchange the bills of credit of this province before that time current, and to be let out upon loan on land security, and again to be paid in annually, and to be sunk and destroyed, according to the directions of the said act. And whereas it hath been found on experience that by the bills so emitted the trade of this province, to and from Great Britain and elsewhere hath been much augmented, and other great benefits have accrued to the inhabitants, who by means of the interest arising on the loan of the said bills have been enabled to support the government in an honorable manner, to pay into the exchequer two thousand pounds sterling for the King's use, four thousand pounds more for the like use, which was applied towards victualing the garrison at Louisburg; near two thousand pounds more in the purchase of an island and 1Passed May 19, 1739, Chapter 353. providing a pest house for the reception and accommodation of Germans and others coming from foreign parts to settle here; besides divers other great sums of money for maintaining our alliances with the several nations of Indians; mediating the differences between them and the governments of Virginia and Maryland, as well as supporting the Indians on divers treaties. And whereas the time limited for the re-emission of the said bills is near expiring and the time appointed for their currency much shortened, so that the sums hereafter to be lent out (as the act now stands) must be paid in again in so small a time and such large proportions as must render the payments difficult to be complied with, and may occasion the bills hereafter to be paid into the loan office to remain in the hands of the trus tees for want of borrowers; and, consequently, the funds which were intended to be raised by the interest of the money so to be lent out must not only fail, but also for want of the circulation of those bills, the merchants, farmers and tradesmen will again be involved in difficulties which the act aforesaid was intended to prevent. And whereas the King in council hath been pleased to approve and confirm the act of assembly aforesaid, whereby the method therein provided for striking and emitting the said bills of credit is freed from objections, and the prolonging of the time for the re-emissions and currency of the said bills, in like manner as in the said act is contained, is less liable to exceptions, and will prevent the inconveniencies before recited and others, as well as enable the inhabitants to support the government for the future and to defray the contingent expenses which frequently arise. [Section I.] Therefore be it enacted by the Honorable George Thomas, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor, with the King's approbation, under the Honorable John Penn, Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, Esquires, true and absolute Proprietaries of the Province of Pennsylvania and the counties of Newcastle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware, by and with the advice and consent of the representatives of the freemen of the said Province in General Assembly met, and by the authority of the same, That the bills of credit made and issued in pursuance of the act of assembly aforesaid, and also all such bills as shall hereafter be issued in exchange for torn and ragged bills, by virtue of an act of assembly 2 made in the seventeenth year of the present reign, shall be and continue, and they are hereby declared to be and continue, the current bills of this province during the time hereinafter-mentioned for the payment and discharge of all manner of debts, rents, sum and sums of money whatsoever, due or payable or accruing upon or by reason of any mortgage, bill, specialty, bond, note, book account, promise or any other contract or cause whatsoever as if the same were tendered or paid in the coins mentioned in such bond or other writing, book account, promise, assumption or in any other contract whatsoever, and at the rates mentioned in the act of Parliament made in the sixth year of the reign of the late Queen Anne,3 for ascertaining the rates of foreign coins in the plantations, and shall be so received by all persons whatsoever. [Section II.] And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That such yearly quotas or payments, parcel of the principal sums emitted in bills of credit of this province, pursuant to the directions of the acts of assembly aforesaid, and such other principal sums which by virtue thereof, or of any mortgage-deed or assurance by the said act directed to be taken, and which are or shall be paid, recovered or received from time to time before the fifteenth day of October, which will be in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, shall not be sunk or destroyed; nor shall any part or parcel of any such quotas or principal sums in bills of credit, payable within the space aforesaid unto the trustees named or to be named, pursuant to the directions of the act aforesaid, be sunk or destroyed otherwise or at any other time than is by this act directed; nor shall the trustees or any of them be capable or suffer any penalty or forfeiture for not sinking the said bills of credit as directed by the said act, anything therein contained to the contrary notwithstanding. But the same yearly quotas and principal sums in bills of credit so to be paid in, unto and received by 2 Passed May 26, 1744, Chapter 361. 3 IV Ruffhead, p. 324. the said trustees or any of them, within the time before limited, and every part and parcel of the said sums, shall from time to time be re-emitted by the trustees of the general loan office of the province for the time being upon loans as is hereinafter-mentioned and appointed; and that all the yearly quotas or parcels of the principal sums arising from those re-emissions which shall be paid into the said general loan office on or before the fifteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, shall by the trustees thereof for the time being be re-emitted again on securities as aforesaid; and so from time to time until all principal moneys anyways accruing that shall be paid unto them on or before the said fifteenth day of October, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, shall be wholly reemitted. [Section III.] And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the trustees of the general loan office aforesaid shall lend out the value of all the bills of credit that they shall so receive, to be re-emitted as before in this present act directed, in sums not exceeding one hundred pounds nor less than twelve pounds ten shillings, to any one person for and during all the space of the sixteen years from the fifteenth of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty-six, or for the residue of that term, from the respective times of the loans to be made by virtue of this act after the said fifteenth day of October, one thousand seven hundred and forty-six, upon securities of messuages, lands, tenements and rents in this province, of which the respective mortgagors stand seized in feesimple clear of all incumbrances, the proprietaries' quit-rents and other rents discovered to the said trustees issuing out of the said securities excepted, of which titles and clearness the trustees are to inform themselves the best they can, by any of the ways and means heretofore granted and allowed, and shall inform themselves as well of the clear value of all lands, houses and ground-rents offered in security, so as to be satisfied that the lands and ground-rents are held in fee-simple and at least of double the value of the sums requested to be lent. And as to the houses erected upon ground subject to the payment of ground-rent offered in mortgage, care shall be taken by the said |
