The following document was prepared from a copy of the original by Brunetta Lafara Lingg. (An 1857 printing of the Acts of Virginia for 1783.) It is located in the microfiche section of the Multnomah County Law Library. It is (excluding typos overlooked) a true and accurate copy including capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
1783 Virginia Tax Act
ACTS
PASSED AT A
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE
COMMONWEALTH
OF
VIRGINIA;
Begun and held at the PUBLIC BUILDINGS in the City of RICHMOND, on MONDAY the Twentieth Day of OCTOBER, in the Year of our LORD One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty three.
CHAP. CLXXXCIII.
An ACT to amend the several Acts of Assembly for ascertaining certain taxes and duties, and for establishing a permanent revenue.
SECTION I
WHEREAS application hath been made to this present General Assemble, that the produce of the Country may be received in payment of the taxes imposed by an Act intituled, "An Act to amend and reduce the several Acts of Assemble for ascertaining certain taxes and duties, and for establishing a permanent revenue, into one Act:"
SECT 2. Be it therefore enacted, That one half of the tax directed under the aforesaid Act, to be paid for the present year, and distrainable for on the twentieth day of November, on lands and lots, male persons above the age of twenty one years, slaves, cattle, horses, mares, colts, mules, wheels for riding carriages, billiard tables, and ordinary licences, may be paid at the option of the payer, either in specie, tobacco, hemp, flour, or deer-skins, to wit : In Inspectors receipts or notes, for good merchantable crop tobacco, not less than nine hundred and fifty nett weight, which shall have been inspected or re-inspected since the first day of October, in the present year, at the rate of thirty shillings per hundred, or in transfer receipts or notes for tobacco at the rate of one hundred and six pounds for one hundred pounds of crop tobacco, at any public inspection within this Commonwealth, or in Inspectors receipts or notes for sound, clean, and merchantable hemp, delivered at the ware-houses provided or to be provided for the reception thereof, at the Towns of Alexandria, Dumfries, Falmouth, Fredericksburg, Louisville, Smithfield, Winchester, Staunton, and Stone-house in Botetourt, Richmond, Manchester, Blandford, and West Point. Provided, that hemp and skins, as herein after described, shall be the only articles receivable at the Towns of Staunton and Winchester, and at the Stone-house in Botetourt; which said notes or receipts for hemp, shall be received in discharge of taxes according to this Act, at the rate of thirty shillings per hundred, except hemp delivered at Winchester, which shall be at twenty six shillings, at Staunton twenty four shillings, and at the Stone-house twenty two shillings per hundred; or in receipts for sound and merchantable flour, inspected since the first day of October in the present year, in casks, delivered at the ware-houses provided or to be provided by the Inspectors and Receivers of hemp, at the aforesaid Towns, at the rate of fourteen shillings per hundred, with an allowance of two shillings and six pence for casks and inspection; or in receipts for skins of deer in the hair, well skinned, cleaned, and trimmed, restricted to the sealons of red, blue, and short grey, delivered at the houses to be provided for that purpose, at the said Towns of Staunton, Winchester, Louisville, and at the Stone-house in the County of Botetourt, at the price of one shilling and eight pence for grey skins, and two shillings per pound for red and blue skins. And any person or persons chargeable with taxes by the said recited Act, and paying the same in manner herein directed, shall be discharged thereof, and may demand and receive of the Sheriff or Collector a receipt, specifying in what articles such person paid his tax, whether it be specie or commutables, particularizing the ware-house from which the ...[illegible print]...have received shall have issued. And every Sheriff shall, moreover, return a list on oath of such payments, to the Clerk of the Court of his County, immediately after his collection, copies of which list shall be fixed up in the said Court-house for the inspection of the people. And the Auditors are hereby required not to settle finally with any Sheriff, for the taxes collected under this and the said recited Act, except the said Sheriff do produce to them a copy of such list, certified by the Clerk; and the Auditors shall, upon settlement with the Sheriff, give their order to the Treasurer to receive such specie or commutables from the Sheriff, agreeable to the said list; and every Sheriff failing to pay the same accordingly, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred pounds, to be recovered in like manner as is prescribed in the case of delinquent Sheriffs. Provided, that any person having before the publication of the said Act, paid to any Sheriff or Collector, in gold or silver coin, more than one moiety of his taxes, shall, on tendering to the same Sheriff or Collector any article hereby declared to be commutable therefor, be entitled to a restitution of all such surplus. And that the several Sheriffs and Collectors of taxes may be prevented from injuring the public revenue, by speculating in the payments made them of the taxes aforesaid;
SECT. 3. Be it enacted, That every person chargeable with such taxes, who may pay any part thereof in tobacco agreeable to this Act, shall only be permitted to discharge the same in inspectors receipts or notes, issued from those ware-houses where the person chargeable therewith may by Law pay Parish and County levies and Officers fees, agreeable to an Act, intituled, "And Act to amend and reduce the several Acts of Assemble for the inspection of tobacco into one Act;" and the several Sheriffs and Collectors shall account for the same on oath, and shall make payment thereof at the Treasury, but shall not be suffered to make payment at any other ware-houses whatsoever. Provided nevertheless, That nothing in this Act contained shall entitle any person whatsoever to pay the commutable of hemp in discharge of taxes, except the property for which such taxes are due shall lie and be on the western side of the mountain commonly called the Blue Ridge, or the person rendering the same shall make oath that it is the growth of the estate for the taxes on which it is offered in payment. And provided also, That the receipts from the ware-houses hereafter mentioned, shall pass in the payment of taxes in the Counties following, that is to say: In the Counties of Frederick, Hampshire, Berkeley, Shenandoah, Rockingham, Ohio, and Monongalia, at any of the ware-houses in Fairfax, Prince William, Stafford, or Spotsylvania; in the Counties of Augusta, Botetourt, Rockbridge, Greenbrier, Washington, and Montgomery, at any of the ware-houses in the Counties of Henrico or Chesterfield. And that the flour so paid in discharge of the taxes may be converted to the purposes by this Act intended, before the same shall be injured or lost;
SECT. 4. Be it enacted, That the inspectors or receivers of flour, shall, on or before the fifteenth day of March next, make out and transmit to the Treasurer a fair and accurate list of the quantity of flour by him or them received, and for whom; and on failure so to do, he or they shall forfeit and pay the sum of fifty pounds, to be recovered by motion in the General Court, or the Court of the County where such inspections may be, with costs, to the use of the Commonwealth, and thereupon execution shall issue, provided the party has ten days previous notice of such motion, And the Treasurer for the time being, shall sell the said tobacco, hemp, skins, and flour, from time to time, as occasion may require, for current gold or silver coins, or otherwise dispose of the said tobacco, hemp, skins, and flour, in payment of the debts and contracts of this Commonwealth, on the best terms that can be obtained, in like manner as if the same had been current gold and silver coin actually paid into the Treasury, having due regard to the appropriations which are or shall be made of the revenue of the Commonwealth. And the Courts of the Counties respectively in which the aforesaid Towns of Alexandria, Dumfries, Falmouth, Fredericksburg, Harrodsburg, Richmond, Manchester, Blandford, Staunton, Smithfield, Winchester, and West-Point, and the said Stone-house, are, shall be, and are hereby authorized and required, to provide good and sufficient ware-houses for the storage of hemp, flour, or deer-skins, as the same are respectively made receivable at the said Towns, and Stone-house in the County of Botetourt, in the manner herein before directed, and to appoint one or two reputable persons, as the case may require, within the said Towns respectively, and at the Stone-house in the County of Botetourt, for the receiving, safe-keeping, and delivery of said hemp, flour, or deer-skins, on public account, and for inspecting the said hemp, who, in the receipts given by them, or either of them, shall specify the names of the persons or owners delivering the same, the number and quantity of each bundle of hemp, and the ware-house, number, and nett weight of each barrel of inspected flour received, for which the inspectors manifest shall be produced, and filed at the said ware-house, as a voucher to prove the inspection thereof, before the delivery by the owner; and the said Courts respectively are hereby authorized to allow to the inspectors or receivers aforesaid, for their risk and trouble, five percent. in money, valuing the articles by them received at the price they are estimated at in this Act, which they shall certify to the Auditors of Public Accounts; and all other expences attending the said ware-houses for the receiving and delivering of the hemp and flour aforesaid, shall be allowed and certified in like manner, and shall be paid out of the money in the public Treasury arising from the sale thereof; and the said receivers or inspectors of hemp and flour, or deer-skins, shall, before entering upon the duties of their office, give bond in a reasonable penalty, payable to the Treasurer for the time being, or to his successors, for the use of the Commonwealth, conditioned for the true and faithful performance of the duties required of them by Law in the execution of their said office; and in case of Failure in any Court to appoint an inspector or receiver respectively as aforesaid, such Court shall be liable to the same penalties as is provided in the case of the Justices neglecting or refusing to take and return lists of the enumerated articles, to be recovered and applied in like manner; and such inspector or receiver shall be liable to damages upon the action of the party grieved, and shall moreover forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred pounds, recoverable on information in any Court, for the use of the Commonwealth.
SECT. 5. And it shall be further enacted, That hemp, flour, and all other articles directed to be paid by this Act, shall be weighed by the nett weight or short hundred, and that the several certificates for hemp and flour shall be separate, so that the several commutable articles may appear in a clear and distinct view.
SECT. 6. And be it further enacted, That the Treasurer shall and may receive from any Sheriff or Collector, who shall obtain the certificate of the Auditors of any partial settlement made with them, such sums of money, or quantities of tobacco, hemp, flour, or deer-skins, or sums in warrants and certificates receivable by Law, as such Sheriff or Collector shall tender him in payment for the same, and grant his receipts accordingly. AND WHEREAS very great loss has been heretofore sustained by the article of hemp, owing to the carelessness of the inspectors or receivers thereof, or other causes,: That the like may in future be prevented,
SECT. 7. Be it enacted, That the purchaser or person receiving the notes for hemp, from the public, may at his own proper cost and charges upon delivery thereof, giving notice to the inspector or receiver, open and review the hemp so to him delivered, and if the same shall appear unmerchantable or damaged, it shall and may be lawful for any two Justices of the Peace for the County in which such hemp shall have been stored, upon application of the person demanding the same, to issue their warrant, directed to seven men well skilled in the quality of hemp, who, are any five of them, having first taken oath to do impartial justice between the person demanding the hemp, and the public inspector or receiver shall examine the quality and condition thereof, and if it shall be found by them that the same is not found, clean, and merchantable, they shall make report thereof, and such hemp shall, by order of two Justices (upon such report to them presented) be directed to be sold at public vendue, for ready money, upon such notice as to them shall seem reasonable; and if the said hemp shall not sell for the current price of good merchantable hemp (which price shall be affixed by any two Justices before the sale) the difference between the prices shall be paid by such inspector or public receiver to the person demanding the said hemp; and upon refusal to make payment, it shall be lawful for the Court of the County in which such hemp shall have been stored, and they are hereby required, upon motion to them, reasonable notice having been given, to give judgment and award execution for the amount thereof, together with costs, and the charges necessarily expended by the person demanding the said hemp; and the Sheriff shall levy and account for the same as by Law in other cases of execution is directed. AND WHEREAS the time fixed by the Act of the last Session, for payment into the public Treasury by the Sheriffs, will not in many of the Counties give the Sheriffs opportunity to make the collections compleat, and it is not necessary that the Judges of the General Court should hold and additional Sessions for rendering judgments against delinquent Sheriffs:
SECT. 8. Be it enacted, That so much of the said Act as compels the respective Sheriffs to account for, and pay into the public Treasury, the amount of their several collections, on or before the twentieth day of January next, and the Judges of the General Court to hold an additional Sessions on the second Monday in February, shall be, and the same is hereby repealed.
SECT. 9. And be it further enacted, That the respective Sheriffs shall account for and pay the amount of their several collections into the public Treasury, on or before the first day of March next; and in case any Sheriff or Collector shall fail to account for, as by Law is directed, and pay into the public Treasury by the said first day of March, the money, or other articles in lieu thereof, by him received for taxes, every such delinquent Sheriff or Collector shall be liable to a judgment against him, on motion, with damages and interest, as by the former Act directed, at the General Court in April next, or any succeeding Court; provided the party shall have had legal notice of the same.
SECT. 10. And be it further enacted, That none of the articles made commutable by this Act, shall be received by the Sheriffs or Collectors from the persons chargeable with taxes, after the first day of March next. And that it shall be at the option of the Treasurer to receive the same, or any part thereof (flour excepted, which he is hereby directed not to receive) from the Sheriffs or Collectors after the first day of April next. And to explain what shall be legal notice;
SECT. 11. Be it enacted, That in all cases of delinquency by the Sheriffs or Collectors of the public revenue, when a motion is intended to be made against them, affidavit before any Justice of the Peace within this Commonwealth, that notice of such intended motion shall have been made, either by delivery thereof to the party, or in case he shall not be found at his usual place of abode, by leaving the same thereat for him, ten days before such motion is to be made, shall be held, deemed, and taken as sufficient and legal notice.
SECT. 12. And be it further enacted, That distress for the money and commutables, hereby made receivable in payment of taxes, shall be suspended until the first day of January next, any Law to the contrary notwithstanding. And that after the said first day of January, distress may be made by the respective Sheriffs and Collectors within this Commonwealth, in the manner directed by the Act intituled, "And Act to amend and reduce the [illegible word] Acts of Assembly for [illegible word] certain taxes and duties, and for establishing a permanent revenue, into one Act."
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