Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large - vol 9.djvu/617

Rh the time of their service, shall conspire with any other, or by themselves goe about to murder and kill, or to maime, wounde, or beate the saide Master or Mistresse, or any that was their Master or Mistresse, or to burne their houses, barnes, or corne, so that their intent come to an Act tending to the effect: that then every such maime or wounde, or the going about to murder, kill, maime, wounde, or beate such person or persons, as bee, or were their Maister or Mistresses, or to burne their houses, barnes, or corne, so that their intent doe come to any Act tending to the same effect, as lying in waite with weapon, or any such like, shall bee accounted felonie, and they shall suffer therefore paines of death, as in case of felonie, except that any such person or persons, as bee, or had beene Master or Mistresse to any of them, or he refusing any other, will take such person so offending to their slaves, & then he or file so offending, to be adjudged to the person so willing to take him or her so offending slave for ever, and thereupon to be discharged of the felony. The same law and order to bee had in all conditions if it should chaunce the father, mother, nurse, or other the bearer about of the childe, or any other person or persons, to steale away such childe adjudged apprentice or servant, that is, to be slave to such apprentices or servants master, whose apprentice or servant was so stollen or intised away, for ever, and the master neverthelesse to take and receive his apprentice or servant againe, as if the said taking away had never beene done.

X. Bee it also enacted by authoritie aforesayde, that although there bee no man which shall demaund such loiterer or loiterers, as before expressed, into their service; yet neverthelesse the Justice of Peace in that Citie, Borough, Towne, or Hundred dwelling, if any such be, or else any other Justice of Peace of the same Shire, and also there dwelling by his or their office, shall bee heereafter bound by vertue of this Act, not onely to inquire of all such idle persons, but also if they doe espy any such vagabonds or idle persons, or if any such bee detected, unto them, to examine him or her of the time of their vagabondrie; and if it shall appeare to any Justice of Peace, any such man or woman to have beene a vagarant and vagabond or idle person, by the space as is aforesayde, to cause the same to bee marked on the brest with an V. made with an hot iron, and also to learne and inquire of him the Towne, Citie or Village wherein he was borne, and then shall immediately give a writing in parchment, sealed with his seale to the sayde loiterer, of the tenor and forme which here insueth:

"A. B. Justice of Peace in the Countie of S. to the Maior or chiefe officer of the City of 2 (if it a Testimonial be a City), or to the Headborough, Bailife, or Constable, or head officer of the towne of 2. (if it be for a towne) or to the Constable or Tithingman of the village of C. (if it be a village) greeting. According to a most godly Statute, made in the first yere of the reigne of our sovereign Lord King the first, &c. We have taken this bearer I. K. vagarantly, and to the evill example of others, without master, service, or labour, whereby to get his living, going loitering idlely about. And because the same saith, hee was in C. in the County of S. whereof you are the head officer or Constable : We have sent him to you to be ordered, according to the purport and effect of the same Statute:"

XI. And with this writing shall deliver the same loiterer to the Constables, or other head officer of the sayde City, Towne or Village, wherein such loiterer was taken, to bee safely conveied by them to the next Constable, and so from Constable to Constables, and other head officers, till he or she be brought to the place, the which hee or shee hath named themselves to bee borne in, and then to be delivered to the head officer or Constable of that same citie, borough or towne, village, hamlet or parish, there to bee nourished and kept of the same citie, towne, or village in chaines, or otherwise, either at the common workes, in amending high-waies, or other common worke, or from man to man in order, till they which may beare bee equally charged, to bee slave to the corporation of the citie, or to the inhabitants of the towne or village, that hee or shee were borne in, after all such forme, condition, space of yeeres, orders, punishments for running awaie, and all others, as are expressed of a common or private person, to whom any such loiterer is adjudged a slave. And the sayde citie, towne, or village shall see the saide slave being able to labor, set on worke, and not lie idlie within the saide precincts, upon peine for everie such default that the said slave doth live idlie, by the default of the city, borough, towne, or village, by the space of three working daies together, the citie to forfeit five pounds: a borough or towne incorporate fortie shillings: and other towne or village twentie shillings: whereof the one halfe to the King our Sovereigne Lord, the other to him that will sue for the same, in any of the Kings Courts of Record, by bill, information, or action of debt, in such suites no essoine, wager of law, or protection shalbe allowed.

XII. Provided and be it enacted, that the citie, towne, and borough corporate, by the consent of the more part of the corporation, and the towne and village not corporate, by the consent of the more part of the inhabitants thereof, may set, sell or give away, the right, title, and interest of the said slave, to any other person, as any other common or private person may doe with his slave, by the vertue of this Act.

XIII. Provided alwaies and be it enacted, that if it fortune when the said vagabond is brought to the said citie, towne, or village, where the said perfon said he was borne, to appeare and be manifest that he or (he was not there borne; that then for such lie, the said vagarant shall bee marked in the face with an S. and bee slave to the inhabitaunts, or corporation of the citie, towne, or village, where the said vagarant said he was borne in, for ever, upon such conditions and orders, in all points as of a slave marked in the face is before expressed: the same law and order'in all points to bee had of all vagarant persons and vagabonds, being borne in any other nation or countrie then in this Realme, as is before expressed of English idle persons (marking in the brest or face onely excepted) that is to bee had to the next Port, and there to bee kept of the inhabitants of the sayde next Port in convenient labour.