69. A Bill to Encourage the Apprehending of Horse Stealers, 18 June 1779
69. A Bill to Encourage the Apprehending of Horse Stealers
Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that whosoever shall apprehend one charged with horse stealing, if the prisoner be convicted of that crime, shall be intitled to a reward of pounds,1 to be paid by the Treasurer, upon a certificate of the General Court, that the claimant was the apprehender, and either that he was not examined as a witness at the trial, or that the other evidence then given was sufficient, without his testimony, to convict the prisoner.
xii, 331.
, p. 50. MS (ViU); clerk’s copy. Text of Act as adopted is inBill was presented by Madison 31 Oct. 1785 and on 14 Dec. was postponed to the next session. At the session of Oct. 1786 it was passed with an amendment specifying the amount of the reward (vi, 124–31; ix, 174). Operation of Act of 1786 suspended to 1 July 1787 (same, xii, 410–11).
, Oct. 1785, 1828 edn., p. 12–15, 92; same, Oct. 1786, p. 16–17, 35, 36, 70, 127). See the 1748 “Act for preventing losses from drivers passing with horses and cattle through this colony; and for laying a duty on horses imported, and the more effectual preventing of horse-stealing” and the amending Act of 1776 (1. The Act reads: “ten pounds.”