714 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



Session of 1660-1. 



"Whereas the lowe prices of tobacco will hard- 

 ly supply the urgeing and pressing necessities of 

 the inhabitants of the country, and those necessi- 

 ties by the importation* and sale of superfluous 

 commodities soe augmented that very kw can 

 with theire annuall labour defray their annuail 

 charge by wliich meanes they are reduced to that 

 extremity that not being owners of their owne 

 commodity (spent before made) they are forced to 

 part with it at what rigorous rate soever the ex- 

 acting merchant will please to propose for preven- 

 tion*^ whereof £ee itt enacted that noe strong 

 drinke of what sort soever, nor silke stufli'e in gar- 

 ments or in peeces (except for whoods and scarfes) 

 nor silver or gold lace nor bonelace of silke or 

 thread nor ribbands wrought with silver or gold 

 in them shall be brought into this countrey to sell 

 after the first of February next under penalty of 

 confiscation of the said goods by the sellar to the 

 governor to be exported and the value thereof by 

 the buyer to that good common-wealth man that 

 shall discover it." — p. 18. 



"Bee it enacted that the order of the governor 

 and councell imposeing five shillings on each bar- 

 rell of privision exported be confirmed and conti- 

 nue in force until the end of July next and then 

 to expire and after that the exportation to bee 

 free."— p. 21. 



"Since flax seede cannot be procured to sowe in 

 the time limited in the act provideing for the 

 makeing of six pound of yarne per poll, Bee itt 

 enacted that the time of putting the said act in 

 execution be prolonged unlill the first of march 

 1662 and that afterwards it be strictly observed." 

 —p. 26. 



The last act of this session was to revive the 

 act for planting mulberry trees, (copied above,) 

 which had been repealed by the act of 1658-9. 



At the cession of 1661-2, another act was pass- 

 ed offering rewards for killmg wolves, which, 

 as the preamble recites, was necessary because 

 "great complaint is made of the frequent and 

 many injuryes done by wolves to the cattle and 

 hogs of several inhabitants of this country." At 

 that time, Henrico was the most western, or the 

 frontier county of the colony. 



As the assembly had thought it necessary to li- 

 mit the fees and exactions of attorneys, millers 

 and blacksmiths, it is not surprising that physi- 

 cians also were put under regulation and restraint. 



"Whereas the excessive and immoderate prices 

 exacted by diverse avaritious and gripeing practi- 

 tioners in phisick and chirurgery haih caused seve- 

 ral hardhearted masters swayed by profitable ra- 

 ther then charitable respects, rather to expose a 

 sick servant to a hazard of recovery, than put 

 themselves to the certaine charge of a rigorous 

 though unskilfuU phisician, whose demands for 

 the most part exceed the purchase of the patient, 

 many other poore people also being forced to give 

 themselves over to a lingring disease, rather then 

 ruine themselves by endeavouring to procure an 

 uncertaine remedy, lor redTese thereof for the fu- 



* The terminations tion, are generally written in 

 the MS. "con:' 



ture. Be it enacted that it shalbe lawfuU for any 

 person or persons conceiving the accompt of the 

 phisiiian or chirurgion unreasonable to arrest the 

 said phisician or chirurgion to the generall or 

 county court wliere the said phisiiian or chirurgiort 

 shall declare upon his oath the true value, cost, 

 and quantily oi' the drugs administered, lor which 

 the court shall grant order against the plaintiff 

 with fifty per cent advance, and such considera- 

 tion for his care, visitts and attendance as they 

 shall judge he hath deserved, and if it shall ap- 

 peare by evidence that the said phisitian or chi- 

 rurgion hath neglected his patient while he was 

 under cure, the court shall censure him to pay soe 

 much as they in their discretion shall think reason- 

 able."— p. 109—110. 



The preamble of the next act, for the encou- 

 ragement of the growth and manufacture of flax,, 

 gives a woful account of the condition of the great 

 staple commodity of the colony. 



" Whereas the incertaine value of tobacco the 

 unstaplenesseof the comodity & and the proba- 

 bility of its planting in other places, threaten this 

 comodity with the danger of an unaroydable 

 ruyne, which must in time fall upon it by the in- 

 crease of the makers of it amonge ourselves (who 

 have already glutted all raarketts that greate quan- 

 tityes are yearely left in the country, and that 

 which is sent out sold at soe meane and inconsi- 

 derable a rate as neither merchant nor planter can 

 well subsist by) unles some other course be spe- 

 dily taken for the improvement of such other co- 

 modityes as the country will produce and making 

 as many of them as we can into manufactures 

 and giveing encouragement unto ail persons of 

 what ability soever to atienipt it, which the former 

 acts lor encouragement to make staple commodi- 

 tyes have been defective in, by only proposing re- 

 wards to greate quantitycs of every comodity 

 made, when whosoever goes about, must if he 

 faile be ruined, or if he make the quantity pro- 

 posed will have noe need of the gratuity, which \s 

 better to be suited proportionably to the meanest 

 quantity. Be it therefore enacted that the assem- 

 bly this present yeare send into England for a con- 

 siderable quantity of fflax seed to be distributed 

 into the several counties and delivered to certaine 

 persons who may sell it out to severall inhabi- 

 tants and the produce thereof to be paid the yeare 

 following with the levye, and the country stock by 

 that meanes be made good, and the several inha- 

 bitants be enabled according to the ffiftyeth act of 

 assembly 1661 to make their proportions of fflax, 

 and whoever will spin the fllax and cause the 

 yarne to be weaved into cloath of a yard wide, 

 shall lor every yard of cloath soe wove of yarne 

 made of fflax growing in the country have three 

 pounds of tobacco, and for every yard of woollen 

 cloath made of yarne here spun in the country, 

 five pounds of tobacco, which upon the prodnce of 

 a certificate from some justice of peace in the 

 county that he hath scene the same in the loome, 

 and that to his knowledge it was really made in 

 the country as aforesaid shall upon producing the 

 same to the governor and councell be paid soe 

 much in the public levye in the same county 

 where they dwell." — pp. 120-1. 



The act to compel the planting of mulberry 



