SAMUEL SPRIGG, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR.

1820.

care and regulation of commissioners, to be vested with sufficient
powers tor that purpose, therefore, Be it further enacted, That
five judicious and discreet persons, three of whom shall be pro-
prietors of lots in said town, provided any one of the three shall
be a resident thereof, and that at least a majority of said commis-
sioners shall reside therein, be elected by ballot, on the first Mon-
day of September next, at the court house in said town, by the
free white male proprietors and householders thereof, being above
the age of twenty-one years, and having resided, if a proprietor,
within the comity, and if a householder, within town, for the
space of one year next preceding the election, and the five per-
ilous having the greatest number of votes at the close of the elec-
tion, shall be declared to be duly elected the commissioners of the
said town, and shall have and exercise the several powers and au-
thority delegated to them by this act.

CH\P. 159.

Commissioners to
be elected.

11. And be it enacted, That the commissioners so as aforesaid
chosen, shall assemble on the third Monday in September next
ensuing their election, at the court-house in Port Tobacco, and
arrange and number themselves into five classes by lot, and the
office of the commissioner of the first class shall determine at the
expiration of one year after his election, the office of the commis-
sioner of the second class at the expiration of two years, the of-
fice, of the commissioner of the third class at the expiration of
three years, the office of the commissioner of the fourth class at
the expiration of four years, and the office of the commissioner
of the fifth class at the expiration of five years; and the vacancy
then occasioned by the determination of their offices, shall be sup-
plied by an election of a judicious and discreet person, being a
proprietor as aforesaid, to be made at the court house in the said
town by those qualified to vote as aforesaid, on the first Monday
of September in every year, and the person so elected shall re-
main in office for the term of five years, and the succession of
said commissioners be so continued as that one commissioner shall
be chosen annually.

To arrange them-
selves into five
classes, &c.

12. And be it enacted, That any justice of the peace for the
county aforesaid, shall on the. first instance he the judge of the
said election, and shall return his certificate thereof to the said
commissioners, on the day first appointed for their meeting, and
the same shall he filed and recorded among their proceedings; and
at every subsequent election the commissioners of the town, or a
major part of them, shall be judges of such election, and the pro-
ceedings thereof shall be recorded under their direction; and eve-
ry justice of the peace, or commissioner, before he shall proceed,
to open an election, shall take an oath or affirmation that he will
faithfully and impartially permit every person to vote at such
election who shall in his judgment be qualified to vote for a com-
missioner of the said town, according to the directions of this act,
and that he will not suffer any person to vote at such election who
shall not in his judgment be qualified to vote as aforesaid.

Any justice may
be judge of the
election.

13. And be it enacted, That if any vacancy shall happen in the
office of one or more of the said commissioners by death, resig-
nation, removal, or otherwise, it shall be lawful for the remaining
commissioners, and they are hereby required, to cause an election
to be made at the court-house in the said town by those qualified

Vacancies, how to

be supplied.