574 Assembly Proceedings, 1714-1726.

Session
Laws

Governour, and the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly, and
the Authority of the same, That the Land already allotted for the
Building of a Court-House and Prisons, and whereon the Court-
House and Prisons at Joppa aforesaid, are built, (not being less
than Two Acres of Land) shall be and remain to the Use of the
said County, for ever; any Law, Usage, Defect, or other thing to
the contrary notwithstanding.
And be it further Enacted, That M^r Thomas Tolley, Cap^t John
Taylor, M^r Daniel Scott, M^r Lancelot Todd, and M^r John Stokes,
or any Three of them, shall be and are hereby appointed Commis-
sioners for Baltemore County aforesaid; and are hereby authorized
and impowered, as well to agree for the Buying and Purchasing
Twenty Acres of Land at Joppa aforesaid, as for the' Surveying and
laying the same out, in the most convenient Manner that may be, at
Joppa aforesaid, into Forty equal Lots, erected into a Town, and
so as the Publick Buildings aforesaid be included within the Twenty
Acres aforesaid; and that the same Lots shall be laid out so as not
to affect the Buildings or Improvements of Col. James Maxwell, or
his Son, already made at the Place aforesaid.
And be it further Enacted, That the Commissioners herein before
nominated and appointed, or the major Part of them, are hereby
impowered some time before the last Tuesday of April next, to meet
together at the County Court-house aforesaid, or some other con-
venient Place near thereabouts, and shall then and there treat and
agree with the Owners and Persons interested in the said Twenty
Acres, for the same; and after Purchase thereof, shall cause the
same to be surveyed and laid out; and after the same so surveyed
and laid out, shall cause the same Twenty Acres to be marked,
staked out, and divided into convenient Streets, Lanes and Allies;
and the remaining Part of the said Twenty Acres of Land, as near
as may be, into Forty equal Lots, marked on some Posts or Stakes
towards the Streets or Lanes, with Number One, Two, Three, Four,
and so on to Forty, to be divided and laid out; out of which Lots,

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the Owner of the said Land shall have his first Choice for one Lot;
and after such Choice, the remaining Lots" may be taken up by
others: And that no Person shall presume to purchase more than
one Lot within the said Twenty Acres, during the first Four Months
after laying out the same: And that the said Lots shall be pur-
chased by the Inhabitants of the County aforesaid. And in case the
said Inhabitants shall not take up the said Lots within the Time of
Four Months after such Laying out as aforesaid, it shall then be
free for any Person or Persons whatsoever, to take up the said Lot
or Lots, paying the Owner proportionable for the same. And in
case the Owner or Owners of the aforesaid Twenty Acres of Land
shall wilfully refuse to make Sale of the same, or that through
Nonage, Coverture, Non sanae Memoriae, or any other Disability or
Impediment whatsoever, be or are disabled to make such Sale as