182 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 3 



thorough enemy of popular rights, Sir William 

 Berkeley. The act is in these words : 



"Whereas the act fibr ff'ences doth not suffitient- 

 ly provide for remedy ol'those many damages done 

 by unruly horses breaking into corne ffields, It is 

 by the auihority of the gt and assembly enacted, that 

 the owner of sucii horses shall be, and hereby 

 is required and enjoyned to take some eff'ectu- 

 ail course for restrayning them from trespassiufj 

 their neighbours, from the twentyeth of .luly till 

 the last oi' October in every yeare, it being much 

 filler that rich men who have the benefitt of such 

 hoi'ses should provide for their restraint, then the 

 poore enjoyned to the mipossibility of every high 

 fi'ences ; and if any horse or horses shall at any 

 tyme hreake into any corne feild, the ffence being 

 ffowre Ibote and halle high, then the owner ol'such 

 horse or horses, upon proofe of the damage, shall 

 pay ibr the ffirst trespasse single damages and for 

 every trespasse after double dammages to the par- 

 ty greived ; and because question hath been made 

 about the sutTitiency of ffences according to the 

 former act, of enjoyning them to be close to the 

 hot tome, It is hereby declared, that being soe close 

 that nothing mentioned in thelbrmer actcan creep 

 through is only by that act intended." — p. 279 



The last act for encouraging the killing of 

 wolves by the Indians, being found ineflectual, 

 was this year repealed, leaving the earlier act in 

 force. 



In 1671, millers were prohibited from taking 

 more of the Indian corn, ground by them, than 

 one-sixth for toll, and of the "English graine," as 

 wheat was called, more than one-eighth part. 



The long continued and favorite policy of pro- 

 hibiting the exportation of wool, hides, and iron, 

 was, by the following repealing act, abandoned at 

 ihis session, on the avowed ground of the failure 

 of the benefit expected. 



"Whereas it was hoped that weavers, tanners, 

 and smiths would have been encouraged with 

 greater diligence and cheerfulness to have im- 

 proved their severall callings Ibr the good of the 

 country when they were sencible what tender care 

 was taken fbr supplying them with materialls for 

 to work upon, in reference to which the exporta- 

 tion ol" wool, hides and iron, was by an act of as- 

 sembly, (continued the three and twentyeth of 

 March, IGGl,) under greate penalties prohibited, 

 and that act strengthened by diverse others since, 

 but noe successe adswerinir the conceived hopes 

 and apparent losses accrueing to all inhabitants 

 by the refusall of those concerned to buy the co- 

 modityes aforesaid, I]e it therefore enacted by this 

 grand assembly and the auihority thereof, that all 

 acts tending to the restriction of selling or export- 

 ing of any of the comodities aforesaid stand re- 

 pealed and every one permitted to make the best? 

 he can of his owne comodily." — p. 287. 



In 1673, an act was passed to encourage the 

 growth and manufacture of hemp and flax. It 

 required that the county courts should cause to be 

 distributed one quart of flax-seed, and one quart 

 of hemp-seed to every tylhable person ; and each 

 person, so fitrnished, was to make two pounds of 



dressed flax or hemp every year, under penalty of 

 being fined 50 pounds of tobacco for each pound 

 required and not produced. 



The following enactment of the session of 1676- 

 7, seems to indicate that there was much reforma- 

 tion needed among the clergy of the established 

 and only church, as no other sect was tolerated. 



^^ And be it further enacted by this grand assem- 

 bly, and by the authority thereof, that such minis- 

 ters as shall become notoriously scandalous by 

 drunkingnesse, swearing, ffornication, or other 

 haynous and crying sins, and shall be thereof law- 

 fully convict, shall fbr every such their haynous 

 crime and wickednesse, the fRrst time forfeite to the 

 parish or parishes wherein he or they soe offend- 

 ino; shalbe benificed, the one halfe of one yeares 

 sallary and dues, and the same fbr a second tyme 

 he shalbe convicted, and if any minister offitiating 

 in any parish shalbe three tymes convicted of any 

 such hajmous crime and wickednesse before men- 

 tioned, that he be forever hereafter made uncapa- 

 ble of oflitiating in any office or ministeriall fiunc- 

 tion in any parish^in this colony." — p. 384-5. 



The following section of the same act of gene- 

 ral relbrm and regulation, (which Ibllowed soon 

 after the re-establishment of (he royal auihority 

 upon the suppression of Bacon's rebellion,) shows 

 that the freedom of speech was treated with but 

 scant respect in that time of excessive loyalty. 



"And whereas it hath beene frequent for rude 

 and ill disposed persons to contemne and revile 

 authority and magistrates, as well in words as in 

 actions; Bee it therefore enacted by this present 

 grand assembly, and by the authority thereof that 

 all and eveiy person and persons that shall from 

 the tyme to come presume to speake and utter mu- 

 tinous or contemptuous words, or shall by any 

 wayes or meanes abuse the right honourable the 

 governour, or any of the counceli, justices of the 

 peace, or commissionated militia officers, and shall 

 be thereof lawfiilly convict, shall fbr his such of- 

 fence, if against the right honourable the gover- 

 nour, be whipped on the bare back with thirty 

 lashes, or pay eight hundred pounds of tobacoo 

 and caske, if against any of the honourable coun- 

 celi, that then he shalbe whipped on the bare back 

 with twenty fbwre lashes, or pay six hundred 

 pounds of tobacco and caske, and if against any 

 justice of the peace or commissionate Isild officer, 

 then to be whipped on the bare back with twenty 

 lasiies, or pay fowre hundred pounds of tobacco 

 and caske. and the like fbr such second offence, 

 being likewise thereof lawfully convict. And if 

 any person or persons, male or female, shall be 

 convicted a third tyme of such niutany or con- 

 temptious or villifying words, writeing or other- 

 wise, abuseing or scanduliscing the right honora- 

 ble the governour or any of the honourable coun- 

 celi or any justice of the peace or commissionated 

 militia ffield officer, then to be whipped on the 

 bare back with thirty nine lashes, and stand in 

 the pillowry two bowers, or pay double the belbre 

 recited flines, all which said ffines as afbresaid 

 shalbe and belong the one halfe to the informer, 

 if he shall sue for the same, and the other hal.'e 

 to the county," &c.— p. 385-6. 



At the same session (1676-7) an act was pass- 



