The History of Virginia Part 18

The clerks of courts, sheriffs and surveyors, are limited according to the several counties. The clerks of courts receive their commissions from the secretary of State; the sheriffs theirs from the governor, and the surveyors of land theirs from the governors of the college, in whom the office of surveyor general is vested by their charter.

The clerks' profits proceed from stated fees, upon all law suits and business in their respective courts, except the clerk of the general court, who is paid a salary by the secretary, who takes the fees of that court to himself.

The sheriff's profit is likewise by fees on all business done in the county courts, to which he is the ministerial officer, and not judge of the county court, as Mr. Oldmixon styles him, page 298; but the best of his income is by a salary of all public tobacco, which is constantly put into the sheriff's hands, to be collected and put into hundreds, convenient for the market. He has likewise several other advantages, which make his place very profitable.

The profits of the surveyors of land are according to the trouble they take. Their fees being proportioned to the surveys they make.

The coroner is a commissioner officer also, but his profits are not worth naming, though he has large fees allowed him when he does any business. There are two or more of them appointed in each parish, as occasion requires; but in the vacancy or absence of any, upon an exigency, the next justice of peace does the business and receives the fee, which is one hundred and thirty-three pounds of tobacco for an inquest on a dead corpse, any other business seldom falling in his way.

-- 11. There are other ministerial officers that have no commission; which are, surveyors of the highways, constables and headboroughs. These are appointed, relieved and altered annually by the county courts, as they see occasion; and such bounds are given them as those courts think most convenient.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE STANDING REVENUES, OR PUBLIC FUNDS IN VIRGINIA.

-- 12. There are five sorts of standing public revenues in that country, viz: 1. A rent reserved by the crown upon all the lands granted by patent. 2. A revenue granted to his majesty by act of a.s.sembly, for the support and maintenance of the government. 3. A revenue raised by the a.s.sembly, and kept in their own disposal, for extraordinary occasions.

4. A revenue raised by the a.s.sembly, and granted to the college. And 5.

A revenue raised by act of parliament in England upon the trade there.

-- 13. 1. The rent reserved upon their lands, is called his majesty's revenue of quit rents, and is two shillings for every hundred acres of land, patented by any person in that country, and two pence per acre for all lands found to escheat; this is paid into the treasury there by all, except the inhabitants of the Northern Neck, who pay nothing to the king; but the whole quit rent of that neck is paid to certain proprietors of the Lord Colepepper's family, who have the possession thereof to themselves, upon the pretensions before rehea.r.s.ed in the first part of this book.

This revenue has been upwards of fifteen hundred pounds a year, since tobacco has held a good price. It is lodged in the receiver general's hands, to be disposed of by his majesty. This money is left in bank there, to be made use of upon any sudden and dangerous emergency, except when it is called home to England; and for want of such a bank, Sir William Berkeley was not able to make any stand against Bacon, whom otherwise he might easily have subdued, and consequently have prevented above one hundred thousand pounds expense to the crown of England, to pacify those troubles.

-- 14. 2. The revenue granted 10 his majesty by act of a.s.sembly, for the support and maintenance of the government, arises first out of a duty of two shillings per hogshead, which is paid for every hogshead of tobacco exported out of that colony. 2. By a rate of fifteen pence per ton for every ship, upon each return of her voyage, whether she be empty or full. 3. By a duty of sixpence per poll for every pa.s.senger, bound or free, going into that country to remain. 4. By the fines and forfeitures imposed by several acts of a.s.sembly. There is also an addition, by wafts and strays having no owner, composition of two pence per acre for escheat land, chattels escheat, and the sale of land instead of rights, at five shillings per right; all which are paid into the hands of the receiver general, and disposed of by the governor and council, (with liberty for the a.s.sembly to inspect the accounts when they meet,) for defraying the public charges of the government.

The revenue, _communibus annis_, amounts to more than three thousand pounds a year.

-- 15. 3. The revenue arising by act of a.s.sembly, and reserved to their own disposal, is of two sorts, viz: a duty upon liquors imported from the neighboring plantations, and a duty upon all slaves and servants imported, except English.

The duty on liquors used to be 4d. per gallon on all wines, rum, and brandy; and 1d. per gallon on beer, cider and other liquors, discounting twenty per cent. upon the invoice, except oats.

The duty on servants and slaves used to be twenty shillings for each servant, not being a native of England or Wales, and five pounds for each slave or negro.

The former of these duties amounts _communibus annis_, to six hundred pounds a year, and the latter to more or less, as the negro ships happen to arrive.

The charge of building and adorning the governor's house and capitol, was defrayed by these duties, and so was the erecting of the public prison.

These funds are gathered into the hands of the treasurer of the country, and are disposed of only by order of a.s.sembly.

-- 16. 4. The revenue raised by the a.s.sembly, and granted to the college, is a duty on all skins and furs exported. This fund raises about an hundred pounds a year, and is paid by the collectors, to the college treasurer.

-- 17. 5 and last. The fund raised by act of parliament in England upon the trade there, is a duty of one penny per pound, upon all tobacco exported to the plantations, and not carried directly to England. This duty was laid by Stat. 25, Car. 2, cap. 7, and granted to the king and his successors; and by their gracious majesties King William and Queen Mary, it was given to the college. This duty does not raise, both in Virginia and Maryland, above two hundred pounds a year, and is accounted for to the college treasurer.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE LEVIES FOR PAYMENT OF THE PUBLIC COUNTY AND PARISH DEBTS.

-- 18. They have but two ways of raising money publicly in that country, viz: by duties upon trade, and a poll tax, which they call levies. Of the duties upon trade, I have spoken sufficiently in the preceding chapter. I come, therefore, now to speak of the levies, which are a certain rate or proportion of tobacco charged upon the head of every t.i.thable person in the country, upon all alike, without distinction.

They call all negroes above sixteen years of age t.i.thable, be they male or female, and all white men of the same age; but children and white women are exempted from all manner of duties.

That a true account of all these t.i.thable persons may be had, they are annually listed in crop time, by the justices of each county respectively; and the masters of families are obliged, under great penalties, then to deliver to those justices a true list of all the t.i.thable persons in their families.

Their levies are threefold, viz: public, county and parish levies.

-- 19. Public levies are such as are proportioned and laid equally, by the general a.s.sembly, upon every t.i.thable person throughout the whole colony. These serve to defray several expenses appointed by law, to be so defrayed, such as the executing of a criminal slave, who must be made good to his owner. The taking up of runaways, and the paying of the militia, when they happen to be employed upon the service. Out of these they likewise pay the several officers of the a.s.sembly, and some other public officers. They further defray the charge of the writs, for the meeting of the house of burgesses, public expresses, and such like.

The authority for levying this rate is given by a short act of a.s.sembly, constantly prepared for that purpose.

-- 20. The county levies are such as are peculiar to each county, and laid by the justices upon all t.i.thable persons, for defraying the charge of their counties, such as the building and repairing their court houses, prisons, pillories, stocks, &c., and the payment of all services, rendered to the county in general.

-- 21. The parish levies are laid by the vestry, for the payment of all charges incident to the several parishes, such as the building, furnishing, and adorning their churches and chapels, buying glebes and building upon them, paying their ministers, readers, clerks, and s.e.xtons.

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE COURTS OF LAW IN VIRGINIA.

-- 22. I have already, in the chronology of the government, hinted what the const.i.tution of their courts was in old time, and that appeals lay from the general court to the a.s.sembly; that the general court, from the beginning, took cognizance of all causes whatsoever, both ecclesiastical and civil, determining everything by the standard of equity and good conscience. They used to come to the merits of the cause as soon as they could without injustice, never admitting such impertinences of form and nicety as were not absolutely necessary; and when the substance of the case was sufficiently debated, they used directly to bring the suit to a decision. By this method, all fair actions were prosecuted with little attendance, all just debts were recovered with the least expense of money and time, and all the tricking and foppery of the law happily avoided.

The Lord Colepepper, who was a man of admirable sense, and well skilled in the laws of England, admired the construction of their courts, and kept them close to this plain method, retrenching some innovations that were then creeping into them, under the notion of form, although, at the same time, he was the occasion of taking away the liberty of appeals to the a.s.sembly.

But the Lord Howard, who succeeded him, endeavored to introduce as many of the English forms as he could, being directly opposite to the Lord Colepepper in that point.

And lastly, Governor Nicholson, a man the least acquainted with law of any of them, endeavored to introduce all the quirks of the English proceedings, by the help of some wretched pettifoggers, who had the direction both of his conscience and his understanding.

-- 23. They have two sorts of courts, that differ only in jurisdiction, namely: the general court, and the county courts.

-- 24. The general court is a court held by the governor and council, or any five of them, who by law are the judges of it, and take cognizance of all causes, criminal, penal, ecclesiastical and civil. From this court there is no appeal, except the thing in demand exceed the value of three hundred pounds sterling, in which case an appeal is allowed to the king and council, in England, and there determined by a committee of the privy council, called the lords of appeals; the like custom being used for all the other plantations. In criminal cases, I don't know that there's any appeal from the sentence of this court; but the governor is authorized, by his commission, to pardon persons found guilty of any crime whatsoever, except of treason and wilful murder; and even in those cases, he may reprieve the criminal, which reprieve stands good, and may be continued from time to time until his majesty's pleasure be signified therein.

-- 25. This court is held twice a year, beginning on the 15th of April, and on the 15th of October. Each time it continues eighteen days, excluding Sundays, if the business hold them so long, and these were formerly the only times of goal delivery; but now, by the governor's commission, he appoints two other courts of goal delivery, and the king allows one hundred pounds for each court to defray the charge thereof.

-- 26. The officers attending this general court, are the sheriff of the county wherein it sits, and his under officers. Their business is to call the litigants, and the evidences into court, and to empannel juries. But each sheriff, in his respective county, makes arrests, and returns the writs to this court.

-- 27. The way of empanneling juries to serve in this court, is thus: the sheriff and his deputies every morning that the court sits, goes about the town, summoning the best of the gentlemen, who resort thither from all parts of the country. The condition of this summons is, that they attend the court that day to serve upon the jury, (it not being known whether there will be occasion or no.) And if any cause happen to require a jury, they are then sworn to try the issue, otherwise, they are in the evening, of course, dismissed from all further attendance, though they be not formally discharged by the court. By this means are procured the best juries this country can afford; for if they should be summoned by writ of venire, from any particular county, that county cannot afford so many qualified persons as are here to be found, because of the great resort of gentlemen from all parts of the colony to these courts, as well to see fashions, as to dispatch their particular business. Nor is vicinage necessary there, to distinguish the several customs of particular places, the whole country being as one neighborhood, and having the same tenures of land, usages and customs.

The grand juries are empanneled much after the same manner; but because they require a greater number of men, and the court is always desirous to have some from all parts of the country, they give their sheriff order a day or two before, to provide this pannel.