182 Assembly Proceedings, Oct. 28-Nov. 15, 1712.

L. H. J.
Lib. 41

By the Council in Assembly
Novem^r 13^th 1712

In Answer to your Message this Day by M^r Tyler and seven
others of your House we have debated the same and Re-
solved we will not recede from our former Resolution already
signified to you to reject the Bill you have desired a Confer-
rence upon
Signed p Order W. Bladen Cl. Council.

By the Council in Assembly
Novem^r 13^th 1712

Gentl. We are heartily sorry to hear of such extraordinary

Oppressions & ill Practices by you represented to have been
committed in Calvert County and thereupon have looked into
the Office of Sheriffs and particularly in Relation to Exe-
cutions made by ffieri fac. and Goods sold by Virtue of Writs
of Venditioni Exponas, and find that upon such Executions
the Sheriff if he does not enquire of the Value of the Goods

p. 363

and Chattels by him taken by a Jury yet he ought to do it by
the Oaths of good Men and take Care the Goods are not
undervalued, for it's instanced in Dalton's Sheriff's Office
Folio 526 the Under Sheriff took Goods upon a fieri facias
and did not sell them to half the Worth of them and upon
Motion it appeared to the Court that he had persuaded the
Jury to undervalue the Goods and according to his Persuasions
the Jury appraised them and then the Sheriff sold them for
the same Money for which they were appraised. The Court
held it was a grand Oppression and thereupon ordered an
Indictment against the Under Sheriff. Again in the same
Authority folio 246 the Sheriff makes Return of a Venditioni
Exponas in these Words. As yet those Goods and Chattels
which I lately took into the Hands " of our Lord the King of
" the Goods and Chattels of the ffarm Possession and Tene-
" ment of the Manor of W —— to the Value of ten Pounds
"remain unsold for Want of Buyers but from Day to Day I
" expose them to sale and as soon as I can will answer unto
" you for the Pence thereupon arising " Which shews that
the Sheriff ought not to sell the Goods and Chattels levyed
under the Value appraised or that he is confined to sell them
before or at the Return of the Writ to any Bidder under the
Value of the Appraisment nor ought he to levy any more
Goods and Chattels than what by the Appraisment of indif-
ferent Men or a Jury as aforesaid are sufficient to answer the
Debt and Cost in the Execution commanded to be levyed
Wherefore we cannot but think the Sheriff that has mistaken
such Rules in his Office and thereby occasioned the Oppres-