23 Geo. III. c. 55.

Collectors to pay Assessments to them.

For compelling the Collectors to account, and pay over the Monies in their Hands.

necessary charges aforesaid being first deducted); and in case any person or persons shall neglect or refuse to pay any such assessment or assessments, then it shall be lawful for the same trustees, or any seven or more of them, for the time being, or any person or persons whom they, or any seven or more of them, shall, by any writing under their hands and seals, appoint and authorise, to levy the same assessment or assessments upon every or any the person or persons liable to pay the same, according to the true intent and meaning of this Act, by distress of the goods and chattels belonging to the person or persons neglecting or refusing to pay the same, and the goods and chattels so distrained to detain and keep until such assessment or assessments, with the reasonable charges of such distress, shall be paid; and that it shall be lawful for such person or persons so distraining, after the space of five days next after such distress taken, to sell the goods and chattels so distrained, returning the overplus (if any) to the owner or owners thereof, after such assessment or assessments, and reasonable charges for or by reason of distraining, keeping, and selling the same, shall be deducted.

XXV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said collectors to be appointed as aforesaid, and every of them, shall from time to time pay over all and every the sum and sums of money by them respectively collected and received, to such person or persons as the said last mentioned trustees, or any seven or more of them, shall, by any writing or writings under their hands and seals, authorise and empower to receive the same (such receiver giving reasonable security to the same trustees, or any seven or more of them, for the due and faithful execution of his said office) to be applied according to the true intent and meaning of this Act, and not otherwise; and every such collector shall fairly enter in one or more book or books to be kept for that purpose, all and every sum and sums of money which they, and every of them, shall have respectively received or collected by virtue of this Act, or by virtue of any power or authority in pursuance thereof, or by reason or means of such their office respectively, with the respective times of their receiving the same; and shall, upon oath, as often as required by the said last mentioned trustees, or any seven or more of them, before one or more justice or justices of the peace for the said Town of Kingston-upon-Hull (which oath such justice or justices is and are hereby empowered and required to administer) give a true, exact, and perfect account, in writing under his or their hand or hands, of all monies which he or they shall have collected, levied, or received, by reason of his or their said office; for which oath no fee or reward shall be taken; and the same may be taken in writing, without any stamp to be impressed thereon.

XXVI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any such collector or collectors shall neglect or refuse to account for any sum or sums of money by them respectively collected or received, to the said last mentioned trustees, or any seven or more of them, or to pay the same, or any part thereof, to such person or persons as they, or any seven or more of them, shall by writing under their hands and seals authorise and empower to receive the same, then it shall be lawful for the said justice or justices of the peace for the said town of Kingston-upon-Hull, to enquire of and concerning such neglects, refusals, and non-payments, as well by the confession of the parties themselves, as by the oaths of one or more credible witness or witnesses (which oath any one of the said justices is hereby empowered and required to administer); and if such collector or collectors shall be convicted of any such neglect, refusal, or non-payment, before such justice or justices, that then such justice and justices shall, and lawfully may, upon such conviction, commit such person or persons to the common goal of the said town, there to remain without bail or main prize, until he or they shall have made a perfect account and payment as aforesaid; and in case any person or persons who shall be so chosen or appointed a collector or collectors of any assessment or assessments made in pursuance of this Act, for the purposes herein last mentioned, shall neglect or refuse to act in or execute such duty or office by the space of five days after such appointment and notice thereof in writing, by seven or more of the said trustees, left at his or their usual place of abode, then every such person so neglecting or refusing shall forfeit and pay the sum of five pounds to the trustees appointed as last mentioned by this act, to be levied, recovered, and applied

in such and the same manner as the monies to be raised by the last mentioned assessment to be made in pursuance of this act, are herein before directed to be levied, recovered and applied; and upon every such neglect or refusal of any person or persons so to act in such duty or office of collector or collectors as last mentioned, then and in such case it shall be lawful for the same trustees, or any seven or more of them, and they are hereby authorised and required, to choose or appoint a new collector or collectors, in the place or stead of every such person or persons so neglecting or refusing to act as aforesaid; and such new collector or collectors shall be subject and liable to such and the same penalties and forfeitures as the person or persons in whose place he or they shall be chosen, was or were subject and liable to.

XXVII. And for the continuance of a sufficient number of fit and proper persons to be trustees for putting this Act into execution, for the several purposes respecting the said burial ground, and other the purposes herein last mentioned; Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That from time to time, and at all times hereafter, as the number of such trustees so to be appointed by this Act, or hereafter to be elected in pursuance thereof, shall be reduced to twenty, it shall be lawful for the surviving or remaining trustees, or any seven or more of them, by any writing or writings under their hands and seals, upon Monday in Easter week, as often as occasion shall require, in the vestry of the parish church of the Holy Trinity, to nominate, elect, and appoint other fit and proper persons, being substantial inhabitants and householders in the said parish, not being of the people called Quakers, to be trustees with them; so as the trustees so to be elected, together with the remaining trustees, do not exceed the number of forty; and such person or persons as shall be so nominated, elected, and appointed a trustee or trustees as last mentioned, shall and may, and is and are hereby empowered to act, to all intents and purposes as fully and amply as any of the last mentioned trustees is and are by this Act empowered to do.

XXVIII. Provided always, That if any person or persons hereby appointed, or hereafter to be chosen a trustee or trustees for the purposes last mentioned, shall have any interest in the said intended additional burial ground, or shall have any share or interest in any contract for inclosing the same, erecting any building therein, or otherwise relating thereto, every such person and persons shall from thenceforth be utterly disabled and disqualified from acting in the said trust, and no trustee or trustees herein before named, or hereafter to be appointed for the purposes last mentioned (other than those entitled to be trustees by virtue of their office or stations as aforesaid) shall act in the execution thereof, but during such time as they shall respectively pay, or be liable to pay for ten pounds a year rent to the assessment or assessments last mentioned.

XXIX. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said last-mentioned trustees shall take care to have all the receipts, payments, debts, credits, and contracts made with or by the artificers and workmen to be employed in or about the inclosing or fencing the said intended additional burial ground, erecting any building therein and making the same fit and convenient for the burial of the dead therein, or in or about the pulling down, clearing, and carrying away the materials of any building or buildings standing on such intended additional burial ground so to be purchased for the purposes aforesaid, or with or by any person or persons to whom such materials shall be sold, or any way relating thereto, and all other proceedings of the said trustees, fairly entered and written in one or more book or books to be kept for that purpose; and by or out of the monies arising out of all or any the assessment or assessments to be made as aforesaid, or by or out of any other sum or sums of money which shall come to their or any of their hands as trustees as aforesaid, or to the hands of any receiver to be by them appointed, shall pay for the purchase of such additional burial ground, and for the inclosing and building upon the same, and all such other charges and expences incident to the said trust, as shall be paid by the said Vicar and Churchwardens and the last mentioned trustees, for the passing and executing this Act.

XXX. And it is hereby further enacted and declared by the authority aforesaid, That all books of accounts concerning the said receipts, payments,

23 Geo. III.

c. 55.

For keeping up a

certain Number of Trustees.

No Trustee to act where interested.

Proceedings of

Trustees to be entered in Books,

Purchase Money, &c. to be paid out of the

Assessinents.

the Rates, may Persons paying to inspect Books.

credits, and contracts, shall from time to time, and at all convenient times, be open to the inspection and perusal of every person or persons who shall pay to any assessment or assessments by virtue of this Act, for the purposes last mentioned, or any of them.

XXXI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all the several trustees appointed, or to be appointed, for the respective purposes mentioned in this Act, shall, at all their respective meetings defray their own charges and expences, and shall give such public previous notice of their several meetings, as shall from time to time be by them, or any seven or more of them respectively agreed upon.

XXXII. Provided always, and it is hereby further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That this Act, or any thing herein contained, shall not extend, or be construed, adjudged, deemed, or taken to extend, to lessen, prejudice, or defeat any of the rights, privileges, fees, profits, or emoluments which the present Vicar of the same parish, or any future Vicar thereof, shall or may, or ought to have in the said additional burial ground; but that the said present Vicar and his successors, and the Churchwardens, Parish Clerk, Sexton, and other officers of the said parish for the time being, shall severally and respectively for ever hereafter have, take, and enjoy, from time to time, the like funeral rates and duties, fees, rights, privileges, profits and emoluments, in unto, out of, and from the said additional burial ground, as now are and have been, or lawfully might be taken and enjoyed during the incumbency of the present Vicar, for or on account of the burial or interment of any person in the present church yard now belonging to the said parish, or the making any grave or vault therein; and that the said Vicar and his successors, as also the curate or reader of the said parish church of the Holy Trinity, or one or both of them (at the discretion of the parishioners of the said parish as hereinafter mentioned) and the Churchwardens, Parish Clerk, Sexton, and other officers of the said parish for the time being, shall also severally and respectively have, take, and enjoy, from time to time, for ever hereafter, all such further and additional fees, rates, duties, profits, and emoluments, as shall be deemed and declared reasonable and proper by the major part of the parishioners of the said parish of the Holy Trinity; who shall assemble themselves at a Vestry to be held in the said parish church in pursuance of three several notices to be given for that purpose in the said church, on three successive preceding Sundays, immediately after divine service, and to settle and determine the same; all which additional fees, rates, duties, profits and emoluments, when so settled and determined, shall be sued for and recovered in like manner as any other fees, rates, duties, profits, and emoluments now belonging to the said Vicar, or other officers respectively, may now be sued for or recovered; and that no parson, curate, minister, officer, or servant, of any other parish whatsoever, shall have or claim any funeral rate or rates, duty, fee, right, privilege, or profit whatsoever, in, unto, out of, or from burials in the said intended additional burial ground.

XXXIII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in case the ground to be purchased for an additional burial ground for the use of the said parish, or any part thereof, shall happen to lie without the bounds or limits of the said parish of the Holy Trinity, the ground so purchased, and every part thereof, shall, for ever after such purchase, be, and be deemed and taken to be, part of and within the said parish of the Holy Trinity, and shall be for ever discharged from any rates or taxes, tithes or duties to the parish out of which it shall be so taken, or to any other parish or place whatsoever.

XXXIV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any difference or dispute shall arise or happen between any of the occupiers of any houses, buildings, lands, grounds, tenements, or hereditaments hereby directed to be charged or assessed in respect of the said additional burial ground, concerning the share or proportion of the rates or taxes to be paid by any such occupier, then, and in every such case, the said mayor and justices of the peace for the said town or borough for the time being or any two of them (whereof such mayor to be one) shall and may in a summary way hear, adjust, and determine every such difference and dispute, and such determination shall be final, binding, and conclusive to both parties; and also, that if any person or persons hereby made liable to pay

the said last mentioned rates and assessments, or any of them, or any part thereof, shall afterwards remove from or quit the house, land, tenement, or premises in respect of which such rate or assessment shall be made, before such time as the assessment due from such person or persons shall be paid, it shall be lawful for the said collectors to make a distress, being warranted by the said last mentioned trustees, or any seven of them, as aforesaid, on the goods and chattels of such person or persons removing as aforesaid, provided a sufficient distress can be found; or otherwise the Churchwardens of the said parish of the Holy Trinity for the time being, in their own names, shall and may sue for and recover the same by action of debt, bill, plaint, or information, in any of the Courts of Record at Westminster, or in the town and county of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, or in the Court of Requests in the same town in any case where such debt is of such amount only as to be within the jurisdiction of that court, with full costs of suit. XXXVI. And forasmuch as the money so to be collected by the receipts of the said rates or assessments by this Act laid and made payable as last mentioned, may not immediately be sufficient for the purposes to which the same are to be applied; Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said trustees last mentioned, or any seven or more of them, at any such meeting to be had as aforesaid, shall and may, and they are hereby empowered, from time to time, by any writing or writings (without any stamp to be impressed thereon) under their hands and seals, to assign over the rates and assessments last mentioned to arise by virtue of this Act, or any part thereof (the costs and charges of assigning or mortgaging the same, to be borne and paid out of such rates and assessments) as a security for any sum or sums of money by them to be borrowed for that purpose, to such person or persons as shall advance and lend the same to secure the repayment thereof, with such interest as shall be agreed upon, not exceeding Five Pounds per centum per Annum; which money so to be borrowed, shall be applied and disposed of as the said rates or assessments last mentioned are by this Act directed to be applied and disposed of, and to no other use or purpose whatsoever; but that no money shall be borrowed by the said trustees last mentioned, on the credit of such rates or assessments, after their first meeting, unless notice in writing under the hand of the treasurer or clerk to the same trustees, be for that purpose fixed in some public place of the said town of Kingston-upon-Hull, at least ten days before the borrowing of such money.

XXXVII. And be if further enacted, That in case the said Mayor and Burgesses in whom the ground for building the new Gao! is to be vested, or in ease the trustees for purchasing the burial ground, or any seven or more of the said trustees, or any person authorised by them, shall, after any messuages, tenements, buildings, lands, or premises shall be purchased or acquired in pursuance of this Act, give six calendar months notice, in writing, to all or any of the tenants at rack rent, or occupiers of such messuages, tenements, buildings, lands, or premises, to quit or deliver up the possession thereof, then every such tenant or occupier shall, at the end of such six calendar months, peaceably and quietly deliver and yield up the possession of the said premises, so by him, her, or them respectively held or occupied, whether upon demise, lease, or otherwise, to the said mayor and burgesses, or to the said trustees, or to the person or persons who shall be appointed by the said mayor and burgesses, or by any seven or more of the said trustees, to take possession thereof; and all leases, demises, or agreements, for renting or holding the same at rack rent, or otherwise, theretofore made, shall, from the end of the said six calendar months, be absolutely void and of none effect, as against the said mayor and burgesses, or the said trustees, or any of them; and if any person or persons so in possession, shall refuse to give up such possession at the expiration of such six calendar months after such notice, it shall and may be lawful for the said mayor and burgesses, or any seven or more of the said trustees, to issue their precept or precepts to the constables of the said town of Kingston-upon-Hull for the time being, or to any or either of them, to cause possession thereof to be delivered up to such person or persons who shall be in such precept or precepts nominated to receive the same, and the said constable and constables is and are hereby respectively required to deliver possession, according to such precept or precepts, of the

B

23 Geo. III.

c. 55.

Rates may be assigned for Money borrowed.

Tenants to deliver

Possession.

premises therein mentioned, and to levy such costs as shall accrue by means of the issuing and executing of every such precept or precepts, by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of any person or persons, who shall have refused to give up such possession as aforesaid, and shall refuse or neglect to pay such costs, the same to be ascertained and settled by the said mayor and burgesses, or the said Trustees, or any seven or more of them, as the case shall be.

LXII. And be it further enacted, That where any distress shall be made for any sum or sums of money to be levied by virtue of this Act, the distress itself shall not be deemed to be unlawful on account of any defect or want of form in the summons, conviction, warrant of distress, or other proceeding relating thereto; nor shall the party or parties distraining be deemed a trespasser or trespassers ab initio, on account of any irregularity committed or suffered after such distress; but the party or parties aggrieved thereby shall and may recover only a satisfaction for the special damage he, she, or they shall have sustained thereby, with full costs of suit: provided nevertheless, that no plaintiff or plaintiffs shall recover in any action for any such irregularity as aforesaid, if tender of sufficient amends hath been made by the party or parties distraining, before such action brought.

LXIV. And be it further enacted, That no action or suit shall be commenced against any person or persons whatsoever, for any matter or thing by him or them done in pursuance of this Act, until notice, in writing, of such intended action or suit, shall have been delivered to him or them, or left at his or their usual place of abode, by the party intending to commence such action or suit, or his or her attorney or agent, one month at least, before such action or suit shall be commenced; in which notice shall be clearly and explicitly contained the cause of action which such plaintiff hath, or claimeth to have, against such person or persons, and on the back of which notice shall be indorsed the name of such plaintiff, his attorney or agent; and that no such plaintiff shall recover any verdict in any such case where the action shall be grounded on any Act or Acts done in pursuance, or under colour of this Act, unless it be proved upon the trial to be had thereupon, that such notice was given as aforesaid; but in default thereof, such defendant or defendants shall recover a verdict, together with his, her, or their full costs of suit.

LXV. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for any such defendant or defendants, within one month next after such notice given as aforesaid, to tender amends to the party complaining, or to his or her agent or attorney; and in case the same be not accepted, to plead such tender in bar to any action to be brought against him or her, together with the plea of not guilty, or any other plea, with leave of the court where such action shall depend; and if upon issue joined thereon, the jury shall find the amends so tendered to have been sufficient, then they shall give a verdict for the defendant or defendants; and in such case, or in case the plaintiff shall become nonsuited, or shall discontinue his or her action, or in case judgment shall be given for such defendant or defendants upon demurrer, such defendant or defendants shall be entitled to the like costs as he or they would have been entitled to in case he or they had pleaded the general issue only; and if upon issue joined, the jury shall find that no amends were tendered, or that the same were not sufficient, and also against the defendant or defendants on such other plea or pleas, then they shall give a verdict for the plaintiff, and such damages as they shall think proper, which he shall recover, together with his or their costs of suit.

LXVI. And be it further enacted, That no evidence shall be permitted to be given by the plaintiff on the trial of any such action as aforesaid, of any cause of action except such as is contained in the notice hereby directed to be given.

LXVIII. And be it further enacted, That in all actions, persecutions, informations, causes and proceedings whatsoever, relating to or concerning the execution of this Act, any inhabitant within the said town or county of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull shall be admitted and allowed to give evidence, notwithstanding such inhabitant is charged with, and liable to pay any rate or assessment by virtue of this act.

LXIX. And be it further enacted, That some time between Michaelmas and Christmas in every year, a fair and just account shall, by order of the