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.

Report description begins Report of the Committee of Revisors Appointed by the General Assembly of Virginia in MDCCLXXVI, Richmond, 1784 description ends , p. 50. MS (ViU); clerk’s copy. Text of Act as adopted is in Hening, description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, Richmond, 1809–23, 13 vols. description ends xii, 331.

Bill 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 (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, 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 (Hening, description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, Richmond, 1809–23, 13 vols. description ends vi, 124–31; ix, 174). Operation of Act of 1786 suspended to 1 July 1787 (same, xii, 410–11).

1. The Act reads: “ten pounds.”

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Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: 69. A Bill to Encourage the Apprehending of Horse Stealers, 18 June 1779
Author: Committee of the Virginia Assembly
Date: 18 June 1779

Reference

Cite as: “69. A Bill to Encourage the Apprehending of Horse Stealers, 18 June 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-02-02-0132-0004-0069. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 2, 1777 – 18 June 1779, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950, pp. 515–516.]