Crown Lands (Forfeited Estates) Act 1698

LXIX. Commissioners, at such Meeting, to set down in Writing what Number shall act in each Division.

The Proportions to be equally assessed; Commissioners to order Constables, &c. to attend, and then read to them their Charge; Constables, &c. absenting themselves, or appearing, and refusing to serve, Penalty; Commissioners to issue Warrant for appointing Assessors, and requiring them to appear and certify the Names of Inhabitants liable to Rate, with the Particulars, and in Manner herein mentioned; and to bring with them Certificates and Returns of Persons to be Collectors; Parish, &c. answerable for Collectors paying in to Receiver General; Assessor, before entering upon his Office, to take the Oaths of 1 W. & M. Sess. 1. c. 8. § 12; Two Commissioners may administer the Oaths; Assessors to give One Copy of their Assessment to the Commissioners; who are to sign and seal Two Duplicates; One to be delivered to Collectors, the other to Receiver General; A like Duplicate to be transmitted to Remembrancer's Office; Appeals first determined; Receipts for Duplicates gratis. Penalty £10.

And for the more effectuall Performance, thereof, Bee it enacted and declared, That the Commissioners at such Generall Meeting or the major Part of them, shall alsoe agree and sett downe in Writing, who and what Number of the said Commissioners shall act in each of the said Divisions or Hundreds, and shall deliver true Copies of such Writing to the Receiver Generall, to be appointed by His Majesty, to the end there may be no failure in any Part of the due Execution of the Service by this Act required; And the Commissioners within the severall Hundreds Laths, Wapentakes, Rapes, Wards, or other Divisions, or any Two or more of them, are hereby authorized and required to cause the severall Proportions, charged on the severall Hundreds, Laths, Wapentakes, Rapes, Wards, or other Divisions, for or towards the Aid hereby granted, to be equally assessed and taxed within every such Hundred Lath, Wapentake, Rape, Ward, or other Division, and within every Parish and Place therein, according to the best of their Judgments and Discretion; And for that end and Purpose, to direct their severall or joynt Precept or Precepts to such Inhabitants, High Constables, Petty Constables, Bailiffes, or other Officers or Ministers, and such Number of them, as they in their Discretions shall think most convenient to be Presenters and Assessors; requiring them to appeare before the said Commissioners, at such Place and Time, not exceeding Tenn Daies as they shall appoint; And at such their Appearances, the said Commissioners, or such of them as shall be then present, shall openly declare the Effect of their Charge to them, and how and in what Manner they should and ought to make their Assessments and how they ought to proceed in the Execution of this Act, according to the true Meaneing of the same, And if any such Constable, Petty-Constable, Bailiffe, Officer, Minister, or other Inhabitants, to whom any Precept shall be directed, shall absent themselves, without lawfull Excuse, to be made out by the Oaths of Two Credible Witnesses, which Oaths the said Commissioners, or any Two of them, are hereby impowered to administer, or if any Person appearing shall refuse to serve, then every such Person soe makeing Default or refuseing to serve, shall for every such Default or Refusall forfeite and loose to His Majesty, such Summes as the Commissioners, or soe many as shall be present, or the major Part of them, being present, shall think fitt, not exceeding the Summe of Five Pounds; And after such Charge given, as aforesaid, the said Comissioners, shall take care that Warrants be issued forth and directed to Two at least of the most able and sufficient Inhabitants of each Parish, Towneshipp or Place, within the respective Divisions, thereby appointing and requireing them to be Assessors of all and every the Rates and Summes of Money by this Act imposed; And shall therein alsoe appoint and prefix a certaine Day and Place, for the said Assessors to appeare before them, and to bring in their Assessments in Writing; which said Assessors are hereby strictly injoyned and required, with all Care and Diligence, to assesse the full Summe given them in Charge respectively; upon all Ready Money, Debts, Personall Estates, Offices, Imployments, Annuities and Pensions, according to this Act, and by an equall Pound Rate, upon all Mannors, Lands, Tenements, Rents, Hereditaments and other the Premisses, within the Limmits, Circuits and Bounds of the respective Parishes and Places for which they shall be soe appointed Assessors, as aforesaid; And shall bring with them att the Time and Place, soe as aforesaid, prefixed for their Appearance, a Certificate in Writing of the said Assessment; And shall then alsoe returne the Names of Two or more able and sufficient Persons, liveing within the Limmitts and Bounds of those Parishes, Towneships, Constablewicks or Places, where they shall be chargeable respectively, to be Collectors of the Moneys which shall be assessed, as aforesaid, and to be paid to His Majesty by this Act For whose paying in to the Receiver Generall, or his Deputy, in manner hereafter mentioned, such Moneys as they shall be charged withall, the Parish or Place wherein they are soe imployed shall be answerable; And every Assessor appointed, or to be appointed, by virtue of this Act, shall before he take upon him the Execution of the said Imployment, take the Oaths mentioned and required to be taken, by an Act made in the Parliament, held in the First Yeare of the Reigne of King William and Queene Mary, intituled, An Act for the abrogating the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, and appointing other Oaths; which Oaths any Two or more of the said Commissioners in the County, City or Place where the said Assessment is to be made, have hereby Power, and are required to administer. And for the compleating of the whole Summe charged, as aforesaid, and to the end the aforesaid Summes charged upon the severall and respective Counties, Rideings, Cities, Boroughs, Townes and Places, may be duely collected, and true Accounts thereof made the said Assessors are hereby required to deliver one Copy of their respective Assessments fairly written and subscribed by them, unto the said Commissioners within the time to be prefixed, as aforesaid; And the said Commissioners, or any Two or more of them, are hereby ordered and required to signe and seale Two Duplicates of the said Assessments; And the one of them to deliver or cause to be delivered to Two or more honest and responsible Persons, to be Collectors; which the said Commissioners are hereby authorized to nominate and appoint for each Parish or Place, with Warrant to the said Collectors, to collect the same Assessment, payable as aforesaid, soe as the said severall Summes may be paid in to the said Receivers Generall, att the respective Times hereby limited; And the said Commissioners are hereby required to deliver, or cause to be delivered, a Schedule or Duplicate in Parchment under their Hands and Seales fairly written, containing the whole Summe assessed upon each Parish or Place unto the Receiver Generall of each County, Rideing, City, Borough, Towne or Place, respectively, or his Deputy And shall transmitt, or cause to be transmitted, a like Schedule or Duplicate into the Kings Remembrancers Office of the Exchequer; And this the said Commissioners shall cause to be done, upon or before the Eighth Day of July, One thousand seaven hundred, or within Twenty Daies after (all Appeales to them made being first determined;) For which Duplicates the Remembrancer or his Deputy, shall give to the Person that brings the same, a Receipt in Writing gratis, under the Penalty of Tenn Pounds, to be Pounds, to be recovered to the Kings Use, as other Penalties are by this Act recoverable.