A Supplement to the act entitled An act authorizing the justices of the supreme court to appoint commissioners to take special bail and to administer oaths and affirmations in causes depending in the said court.

Passed December 4, 1807.

Sec. 1. BE IT ENACTED by the council and general assembly of this state, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, [Rev.124] That so much of the above-recited act to which this is a supplement, as requires an affidavit to be administered by the clerk of the supreme court of the due taking of the recognizance of bail or bail-piece by some person present at the taking thereof, shall be and the same is hereby repealed.

pointed.

AN ACT respecting Forfeited Estates.

Passed November 22, 1808.

Sec. 1. BE IT ENACTED by the council and general assembly of this state, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That John Outwater, Peter Ward, and Garret G. Lansing, of the county of Bergen, John Commis. Dod, Charles Clark, and Enos Martin, of the sioners ap county of Essex, Thomson Stelle, Staats Van Deursen, and John L. Anderson, of the county of Middlesex, James R. English, Major John Stillwell, and John S. Holmes, of the county of Monmouth, John Frelinghuysen, Peter D. Vroom, and Joseph Annin, of the county of Somerset, John Black, Joseph Budd, and Charles Ellis, of the county of Burlington,

Amos Cooper, Job Brown, and Mathew Collins, of the county of Gloucester, Jerediah Dubois, John Nichols, and Thomas Bines, of the county of Salem, Henry Swain, John Dickinson, and Robert Edmunds, of the county of Cape-May, George C. Maxwell, James Linn, and Andrew Bartles, of the county of Hunterdon, William Monro, Jesse Upson, and Silas Condict, of the county of Morris, Timothy Elmer, Moses Burt, and Enoch Burgin, of the county of Cumberland, and George Bidleman, William Armstrong, and Richard Edsall, of the county of Sussex, be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners for the several counties in which they reside, and for which they are respectively named, and the act or signature of any two of them shall be as good and valid in law as if all three had acted together.

Their du

2. And be it enacted, That all estates real, of what nature or kind soever, forfeited to or vested in this state, in pursuance to an act of Assembly passed the eleventh December, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, en- [Rev. 40] titled, "An act forfeiting to and vesting in the state of New-Jersey, &c." which remain un- ties, powsold by the state, shall be disposed of by virtue er, &c. of a writ or process issuing out of the court of common pleas in the county in which such estate is situated, directed to the commissioners of the said county, or any two or more of them; which writ or process the clerk of such court is hereby required to issue, on application to him made for that purpose by such commissioners, and moreover to record the same in a book kept for the purpose of recording executions issued out of the court of said county, before the delivery thereof; and the said commissioners shall thereupon proceed to sell at

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public vendue, all such forfeited estates, giving notice of the time and place of sale at least two months before the day prefixed for the same, by advertisement in the newspapers published in this state, and also in three or more of the most public places in the county where any such estate may lie, particularly describing the premises to be sold; and such sale shall take place between the hours of twelve and five in the afternoon of the day of sale, subject to adjournment at the discretion of said commissioners, for any time not less than fourteen days; and after the receipt of the full purchase money for each estate, shall in their own names make seal and deliver to the purchaser or purchasers, by deed poll, a good and sufficient conveyance for the same, therein reciting the writ by which they were directed to sell such estate, and granting and conveying to the said purchaser or purchasers, all the right, title, interest, property, claim or demand whatsoever, either in law or equity, which the person forfeiting had, or ought to have had, of, in and to the said bargained premises, at the time of committing the offence for which the same became forfeited; by which deed the purchaser or purchasers shall in every case be, and is and are hereby declared to be vested in as good and perfect an estate in the said bargained premises, as the person forfeiting was vested in at the time of committing the offence as aforesaid, and shall have, hold and enjoy the said bargained premises as fully in every respect, as the person forfeiting held, or might or ought to have held the same, at any time before committing the offence for which the same became forfeited as aforesaid; and shall moreover be entitled to all such deeds, conveyances, and

other writings respecting the title of such bargained premises, as can be found or obtained.

made.

3. And be it enacted, That if any process or Indemniproceeding, by virtue of which any such sale fication may be made as aforesaid, shall hereafter be how to be reversed, or made void for error, or any other cause whatsoever, such reversal shall not affect or injure, or be of force, or in anywise operate against any bona fide purchaser under this act, but against the state only; and in every such case the plaintiff in error, or person injured by the sale of any estate, shall apply to the legislature to be indemnified out of the public treasury, to the amount of the purchase money for such estate.

And whereas it hath been suggested to the legislature, that there is considerable real estate which was forfeited to this state during the late revolutionary war, which remains unsold and undiscovered; therefore,

for discov

4. Be it enacted, That any person or persons who shall give information of, or discover to Reward the commissioners by this act appointed, any ering forreal estate forfeited agreeable to the laws of feited esthis state, unsold and heretofore undiscovered, tate. and so situated that the state shall derive an advantage from the discovery so made, the commissioners in such case are hereby authorized to allow to such informant or informants, discoverer or discoverers, at their discretion, a reward, which shall in no case exceed thirtyfive per cent on the amount of the benefit accruing to the state, in consequence of such information or discovery.

commis

Compen. 5. And be it enacted, That the said com- sation of missioners shall pay into the treasury of this sioners. state, the monies arising from any sale made in pursuance of this act, within three months af

how to be filled.

ter such sale; that it shall be their duty to exhibit their proceedings before the legislature annually, within the first or second week of their first sitting; and they shall receive such per cent on the amount of monies by them paid into the treasury, as the legislature, on viewing a statement of their proceedings, may allow.

Vacancies 6. And be it enacted, That in case of resignation, refusal to serve, death, or other disability, of any commissioner or commissionersappointed as aforesaid, it shall and may be lawful for the governor for the time being, to fill up such vacancy by a new appointment in writing, under his hand and the seal of the state; and the commissioner or commissioners so appointed shall be vested with the same powers, perform the same duties, and be entitled to the same rewards, as the commissioners appointed by this act. And each and every commissioner, who after having accepted his appointment, shall neglect or refuse to perform any duties required of him by this act, shall for every such neglect or rePenalties, fusal, forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred dollars, to be recovered by the attorney-general, in an action of debt, at the suit of the state, in any court of record where the same may be cognizable; and any commissioner having any monies in his hands or possession, arising from the sale of such estate, and who shall neglect or refuse to account for the same, or shall make default in paying the said monies into the treasury, shall be subject to an action or actions of debt, at the suit of the treasurer for the time being, for the recovery of the same, with interest and costs of suit.