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Two Curious Old Documents

Two Curious Old Documents image
Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
May
Year
1897
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Judge Newkirk received a present the other day of two oíd documente which he values very much. They were presented to bim by Win. Whaley, of Milan, Mich., who took tliem from the court house in King George's county Va., in 1863. One is a bond for fifty pounds, given by Holmes Boisseau and Wm. Hamlin, on the 7th day of Feb. 1826, to illow 1 1 o! mes Boisseau "to obtain a Lycence tor Solémnization of Matrimony between liim. t.lip s'd Holmes Boisseau, and Rebecca Jones, Daughter of Jamos Jones, of the county aforesaid Late Deceased," etc. It is a very interest ndocument, neatly and plainly written and well preserved. The other document is in as good condition, written oven more nicely, and even more curious, for it is an information for "Tending Seconds of Tobacco," a crime not familiar to the statute book of the present day. It may be explained by the quotations that follows : "Whereas, by one act ot a (jenerai Assembly held at Williamslmrgh, the 23d day of October in the fourth year oi the Reign of our late sovereign Lady Queen Aune. Amongst other things it stands enacted by the authority of the Assembly, That all Tending of Seconds for Tobacco is hereby forbid : and that Whosever shall tend or cause or suffer to be Tended any Seconds, shall forfait and pay five hundred pounds of Tobacco for every Tithable persou he shall have or employ that year, upon the plantation where the Seconds shall grów. One Moietv of all the fines and tures in tliis act shall be to our Sovereign Lady the Queen, lier heirs and successors, and the other Moiety to him or them that shall sue or Inform for the Same, to be recovered by Oosts by Actionof Debt, bilí, plaint or Information in any Court of Record in thia Her Majesty'a Colony and Dominion, "etc. The iuforuiation was made out on the 8th day of September 1736, against one "Humphrey Moody, at the Parish of Bristol." It is made out and signed by Thomas Eldridge, the Attorney of our Sovereign Lord the King." What "Tending Seconds of Tobacco" means, is more than any one hereabouts knows, so that enormous crime can not be fully understood.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier