Thomas Jefferson Papers

61. A Bill to Enable Guardians and Committees to Perform Certain Acts for the Benefit of Those Who Are under Their Care, 18 June 1779

61. A Bill to Enable Guardians and Committees to Perform Certain Acts for the Benefit of Those Who Are under Their Care

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that where any person under the age of twenty-one years, or of unsound mind, is, or shall be seized or possessed of any land, tenements, or hereditaments, in trust, or by way of mortgage, the guardian of the one, or committee of the other,1 by order of the High Court of Chancery, made upon the petition of one or more of the parties interested, and after hearing them all may execute any such deed, or perform any other such act, as the trustee or mortgagee, if he were of full age, or of sane mind, respectively might have executed or performed; and such deed or other act shall be as valid, except that he shall not be bound by a warranty or other covenant contained in the deed. Also the said court may in like manner empower such guardian or committee to make, or take, a surrender of a former lease, and to take, or make, a new lease, as the case may require and as it shall seem most for the advantage of the infant, ideot, or lunatic, out of whose estate any fine that may be advanced and all other just expences that may be incurred in order to obtain a new lease to him, shall be reimbursed, and the new lease shall not be only chargeable with such fine and expences, but shall remain subject to all incumbrances which the lease surrendered would have been subject to.

Report description begins Report of the Committee of Revisors Appointed by the General Assembly of Virginia in MDCCLXXVI, Richmond, 1784 description ends , p. 44–5. MS (ViU); clerk’s copy. Text of the Act as adopted is in Hening, description begins William W. Hening, The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia description ends xii, 193–4.

Bill was presented by Madison 31 Oct. 1785, amended 29 Nov., passed by House 5 Dec., and approved by Senate the next day (JHD description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia (cited by session and date of publication) description ends , Oct. 1785, 1828 edn., p. 12–15, 64, 71, 74, 133). Text of Act as adopted agrees with Bill as proposed except for additional clause putting it into effect 1 Jan. 1787 and except as noted below.

1The Act adds at this point: “(which committee shall be appointed by the high court of chancery).”

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