most productive streams and sources or fountains of water for that purpose, and to lay and conduct any number of -pipes, conduits or aqueducts through or over any of the said lands, or any rivers or streams of water as they may see fit, to or towards the said city, and in any and every part of the said city, and to agree with the owner or owners of any mills, lands, tenements or hereditaments that may be damaged or affected by any of the said operations for and about a reasonable compensation to be made to him, her or them, for such mills, lands, tenements or hereditaments, or the use thereof, as may be used or occupied for the purposes aforesaid, or any of them, or for any damage which he, she or they, or any of them may sustain by the employing, diverting or obstructing any such stream or streams, or using any such lands, or the cutting, laying, raising or making any such reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, trenches, pipes, conduits, dikes or mounds as aforesaid; but in case of disagreement, or in case the owner or owners of such mills, lands, tenements or hereditaments shall be feme covert, under age, non compos mentis, or out of the state, then it shall be lawful for the judges of the supreme court of this state, or any one of them (not being an inhabitant of the said city) upon the application of either party, to nominate and appoint three indifferent persons to view, examine and survey the said mills, lands, hereditaments and tenements, and to estimate the injury sustained as aforesaid, and to report thereupon to the said court without delay, and upon the coming in of such report, and the confirmation thereof by the said court, the said president, directors and company shall pay to the said owners respectively the sum mentioned in such report, in full compensation for the said mills, lands, hereditaments and tenements, or for the injury sustained as aforesaid, as the case may be, and upon such payment the said president, directors and company shall be and become seised in fee of all such mills, lands, hereditaments and tenements as they shall have taken possession of and paid for as aforesaid, and they and all those who have acted under them, shall be acquitted from and freed from responsibility for or on account of any such injury.

VI. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful Their further for the said company hereby incorporated, and for all and privileges. every person or persons employed by or under them, for the purposes contemplated by this act, from time to time to enter upon any lands contiguous or near to said streams, fountains, aqueducts, dams or other works, or the places which may be selected for and intended to be used and employed for the same, with carts, waggons or other carriages and beasts of draught and burthen, and all necessary tools and implements, both for executing and making, and also for altering and repairing the said works, or any

Prefident and directors to

make and ef tablish byelaws, &c.

To agree poration of

with the corThe faid city

and others for

the water. Provifo.

Surplus capi.

pofed of.

of them, and to take and carry away any timber, stone, clay, gravel, sand or earth from the same, for the making, altering or repairing the said works, or any of them, subject always to the making of compensations for all damages thereby occasioned, either by agreement of parties, or in the mode herein before prescribed.

VII. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawfuf for the president and directors of such company from time to time to make and establish such bye-laws and ordinances as they may think fit and proper, and as may be consistent with the constitution and laws of this state and of the United States, for conducting and managing the affairs of the said company, and for conducting and preserving the said works, and every of them, and for conveying, employing, distributing and disposing of the water so to be conducted as aforesaid, and for carrying into effect all the objects and purposes of the said incorporation; and may also agree with the corporation of the city of New-York, the inhabitants of the said city, and others choosing to take or use the said water, regarding the rates at which the same shall be paid for: Provided, That the said company shall, within ten years from the passing of this act, furnish and continue a supply of pure and wholesome water sufficient for the use of all such citizens dwelling in the said city as shall agree to take it on the terms to be demanded by the said company, in default whereof the said corporation shall be dissolved.

VIII. And be it further enacted, That it shall and may tal how dif- be lawful for the said company to employ all such surplus capital, as may belong or accrue to the said company in the purchase of public or other stock, or in any other monied transactions or operations not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of this state or of the United States, for the sole benefit of the said company.

To demand from the ftockholders respectively fuch propor

IX. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the said directors to call and demand from the stockholders respectively all such sums of money by them subscribed or to be subscribed, at such times and in such profum fubfcrib portions as they shall see fit, under pain of forfeiture of their shares, and of all previous payments thereon, to the said president, directors and company.

tion of the

ed as they

fhall fee fit.

Perfons wilfully dam

aging any of the works how dealt with.

. X. And be it further enacted, That if any person or persons shall wilfully do or cause to be done any act whatsoever whereby the said works, or any pipe, conduit, canal, watercourse, mound, plug, cock, reservoir, dike, or any engine, machine or structure, or any matter or thing appertaining to the same shall be stopped, obstructed, impaired, weakened or injured, the person or persons so offending shall forfeit and pay to the said company treble the amount of the damages sustained by means of such offence or injury, to be recovered by such company, with costs of

suit and by action of debt, in the supreme court of judicature of this state, which action shall in every instance be considered as transitory in its nature, and shall and may be triable in any county in this state.

Farmer's Bank.

TWENTY-FOURTH SESSION.

CHAP. XCIII.

An ACT to incorporate the Stockholders of the Farmer's

W

Bank.

Passed 31st March, 1801.

́HEREAS Elijah Janes, Charles Seldon and others, Preamble. associated as a company, under the style of the Farmer's bank, by their petition presented to the legislature, have prayed for the privilege of being incorporated, the better to enable them to carry on the purposes of their institution: Therefore,

ration.

I. Be it enacted by the People of the State of New-York, Stockholders represented in Senate and Assembly, That all such/persons incorporated and ftyle of as now are, or hereafter shall be stockholders of the said the incorpobank, shall be, and hereby are ordained, constituted and declared to be, from time to time and until the first Tuesday of March, which will be in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eleven, a body corporate and politic, in fact and in name, by the name of The president, directors and company of the Farmer's bank, and that by that name they and their successors until the said first Tuesday of March, one thousand eight hundred and eleven, shall and may have continual succession, and shall be persons in law capable of suing and being sued, pleading and being impleaded, answering and being answered unto, defending and being defended, in all courts and places whatsoever, and in all manner of actions, suits, complaints, matters and causes whatsoever, and that they and their successors may have a common seal, and may change. and alter the same at their pleasure, and also, that they and their successors, by the same name of The president, directors and company of the Farmer's bank, shall be in law capable of purchasing, holding and conveying any estate real or personal, for the use of the said corporation.

II. And be it further enacted, That a share in the said bank shall be fifty dollars and the number of shares shall not exced five thousand, exclusive of any shares that may be subscribed on the part of this state, and subscriptions shall be kept open under the direction of the president and directors of the said bank until the said number of shares shall be subscribed, and at such times and places as they shall think proper, and the whole amount of the stock,

Price of each fare and

limitation of

their number.

Afairs of faid Corporation to be manag ed by 13 directors, one of whom to

be prefident, to be chosen annually.

Elections for o be notified

directors how

and held.

Vacancies

how to be filled.

Firft direc

tors named.

estate and property which the said corporation shall be authorized to hold, including the capital stock above mentioned, shall never exceed in value three hundred thousand dollars.

III. And be it further enacted, That the stock, property, affairs and concerns of the said corporation shall be managed and conduct by thirteen directors, one of whom to be president, who shall hold their offices for one year, which directors shall be stockholders, citizens of this state, and residing two of them in the village of Waterford, five of them in the village of Lansingburgh, and six of them in the village of Troy, and shall be elected on the first Monday in February in every year, at such place in the town of Troy as a majority of the directors (who shall upon all occasions constitute a board for doing business) for the time being shall appoint, and public notice shall be given by the said directors in one of the newspapers printed in the village of Lansingburgh or Troy, of such time and place, not more than sixty nor less than thirty days previous to the day of holding said election; and the said election shall be held and made by such of the stockholders of the said bank as shall attend for that purpose, either in person or by proxy, which proxies shall always be stockholders; and all elections shall be by ballot, and the thirteen persons who shall have the greatest number of votes, and residing in the villages as aforesaid, shall be directors; and if it should happen at any election that two or more persons have an equal number of votes, then the said directors in office at the time of such election, or a major part of them, shall proceed to ballot, and by plurality of votes determine which of the said persons so having an equal number of votes shall be the director or directors, so as to complete the whole number of thirteen ; and the said directors chosen at such election, as soon as may be thereafter, shall proceed in like manner to elect by ballot one of their number to be their president; and if any director shall remove out of this state, his office shall be considered as vacant; and whenever any vacancy or vacancies shall happen among the directors, by death, resignation or removal, such vacancy or vacancies shall be filled for the remainder of the year in which they shall happen, by such person or persons as the remainder of the directors, for the time being, or a majority of them, shall appoint; and the first directors shall be Samuel Stewart, Guert Van Schoonhoven, John D. Dickenson, James Hickock, Charles Seldon, William Bradley, Elijah Janes, Benjamin Tibbets, Ephraim Morgan, John Woodworth, Daniel Merrit, Townsend M'Coun and Christopher Hutton; and shall hold their offices respectively until the first day of February, which will be in the year one thousand eight hundred and two.

to this act

not to be dif

IV And be it further enacted, That in case it should at Election not any time happen that an election of directors should not held purfuant be made on any day when pursuant to this act it ought to corporation have been done, the said corporation, shall not for that cause folved. be deemed to be dissolved, but that it shall and may be lawful on any other day to hold and make an election of directors in such manner as shall have been regulated by the laws and ordinances of the said corporation.

V. And be it further enacted, That the directors for the time being, or a major part of them, shall have power to make and prescribe such bye-laws, rules and regulations as to them shall appear needful and proper, touching the management and disposition of the stock, property, estate and effects of the said corporation, the duties and conduct of the officers, clerks and servants employed therein, the election of directors, and all such other matters as appertain to the business of a bank, and shall also have power to appoint so many officers, clerks and servants for carrying on the said business, and with such salaries and allowances, as to them shall seem meet; Provided, That such bye-laws, rules and regulations be not repugnant to the constitution and laws of the United States or of this state. VI. And be it further enacted, That the said bank shall be established and kept, and the buildings necessary for the accommodation thereof erected, and the business thereof at all times hereafter transacted at such place in the town of Troy, as Hosea Moffat, Jonathan Brown, John E. Van Alen and James M'Kown, or any three of them, shall designate and point out; which location, when so made, shall be unalterable, and said place shall be near the road leading from Troy to Lansingburgh, and not further north than the Mill-creek, nor further south than the house of Joshua Raymond; and the said buildings, necessary for the accommodation of said bank, shall be erected, and so far completed, as to admit the transaction of the business of said bank by the first day of December next after the passing of this act.

VII. And be it further enacted, That this state shall have a right to subscribe any number of shares to the said bank, not exceeding in the whole the number of two hundred, at any time when they shall by law authorize any person or persons for that purpose; and the state shall have a right to increase the number of shares and stock which the said corporation may hold to the amount of the sum to be subscribed, if the number of shares herein before limited shall be subscribed before such subscription shall take place on the part of the state.

Power and

authority of the faid dires

tors.

Bank where and the neto be kept ceffary build ings to be erected.

This ftate to have a right the number herein mené tioned.

to fubfcribe

of shares

the faid cor

VIII. And be it further enacted, That the total amount Amount of of debts which the said corporation shall at any time debts which owe, whether by bond, bill, note or other contract, over poration may and above the specie then actually deposited in the bank, owe.

VOL. II.

at any time