Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large - vol 11.djvu/857

A. D. 1773. who transferred the same, as free and absolute, and be holden and enjoyed, by all and every such Person or Persons to whom such Transfer shall be made, as aforesaid, freely and absolutely acquitted, exonerated, and discharged, of and from all Manner of Trusts, Conditions, Powers of Revocation, Provisoes of Redemption, or other Defeazances between or with the said Parties, or any other Person or Persons in Trust for them; and that all Bonds, Covenants, Notes, Collateral or other Securities, Contracts, or Agreements, between or with the said Parties, or any other Person or Persons in Trust for them, or any of them, for the retransferring, redeeming, revoking, or defeating such Transfer, or for the restoring or retransferring thereof, or any Part thereof, to any Person or Persons who made such Transfer, or to any other Person or Persons in Trust for them, or any of them, shall be null and void, to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever: And that every Person to whom such Transfer shall have been made, and who shall have voted by virtue thereof, at any Election of Members of the Court of Directors, in any General Court of the said United Company, and who shall afterwards retransfer or return the same, in Consequence of any Trust, Condition, Powers of Revocation, Proviso of Redemption, or other Defeazance whatsoever, as aforesaid, shall, for every such Offence, forfeit the Sum of One thousand Pounds; One Moiety whereof shall go and be disposed of to any Person who shall sue for the same, and the other Moiety to His Majesty, His Heirs and Successors; to be recovered, together with full Costs of Suit, by Action of Debt, Bill, Plaint, or Information, in any of His Majesty’s Courts of Record at Westminster, wherein no Essoin, Privilege, Protection, Wager of Law, or more than One Imparlance, shall be admitted or allowed; and that from and after the First Day of October, One thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, no Member or Proprietor of the said United Company shall be deemed qualified, or capable to vote, or be admitted to give any Vote or Votes, at any Election of Directors, or at any General Court of the said United Company, in respect orof [sic] any Stock amounting to less than One thousand Pounds, nor in respect of any Stock transferred to him, her, or them, after the said First Day of October, One thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, until he, she, or they, shall have been possessed of such Stock Twelve Calendar Months, in his, her, or their own Right, and not in Trust for any other Person or Persons whatsoever, freed and discharged of all Incumbrances which can or may affect the same, unless such Stock shall have been acquired, or shall have come to such Proprietor by Bequest, or by Marriage, or by Succession to any Intestate’s Estates, or by the Custom of the City of London, or by any Deed of Settlement after the Death of any Person who shall have been intitled for Life to the Dividends of such Stock; any Law, Statute, or Usage, to the Contrary notwithstanding.

IV. Provided always, and be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That every Member or Proprietor of the said United Company, who shall be possessed, for the Time or Term aforesaid, in his or her own Right, of Three thousand Pounds, Capital Stock of the said Company, shall be intitled to give Two Votes at any Election of Directors, or at any Ballot of the said Company; and every Member or Proprietor who shall be possessed, for the Time or Term aforesaid, of Six thousand Pounds, in his or her own Right, shall be intitled to give Three Votes; and every Member or Proprietor who shall be possessed for the Time or Term aforesaid, of Ten thousand Pounds, or more, shall be intitled to give Four Votes at such Election or Ballot; and the Oath and Affirmation herein-after respectively prescribed, shall, as Occasion shall require, be altered in such Manner as shall be necessary to comprise such Right of voting.

V. Provided always, and it is hereby further enacted, That any Member or Proprietor of the said United Company shall be deemed qualified or capable to vote, and shall be admitted to give his or her Vote or Votes, at any Election of Directors, or at any General Court of the said United Company, that shall be held after the First Day of October, One thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, in respect of any such Stock, not, amounting to less than One thousand Pounds, whereof he or she shall have been possessed from the said First Day of October, any Thing herein contained to the Contrary notwithstanding: And the Oath and Affirmation herein-after respectively prescribed shall be, as Occasion shall require, altered in such Manner in respect of the Continuance of the Possession of such Stock, as to comprise the Time aforesaid.

VI. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That from and after the First Day of October, One thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, upon every Election to be made of any Member or Members of the Court of Directors, and upon every Ballot to be taken at any General Court of the said United Company, every Member or Proprietor of the said Company shall, before admitted to vote at such Election, or in such General Court, first take the Oath hereafter mentioned before Two or more of the Directors of the said United Company, who are hereby impowered to administer such Oath; (that is to say),

A. B. do swear, (or being One of the People called Quakers, do solemnly affirm), That the Sum of One thousand Pounds or more of the Capital Stock of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, standing in my Name, doth at this Time belong, and hath for the Space of Twelve Calendar Months actually belonged to me, in my own Right, and not in Trust for any Person or Persons whatsoever; and that I have been in the actual Receipt of the Dividends and Profits thereof for my own Use, freed and discharged of all Incumbrances which can or may affect the same, for the said Space of Twelve Calendar Months; or that the same came to me within the Time aforesaid by Bequest, or by Mar- riage,