Session
Laws
printed by
William
Parks, 1730
Chap. VII

Continues
1717, ch. 7
[Chap. VIII
is a private
act of which
the text is
not found]

ACTS

At a Session of Assembly begun and held at the City of Annapolis,
in Maryland, the Twenty First Day of May, 1730, the following
Laws were Enacted.

An Act for Improving the Staple of Tobacco; and for continuing
Part of an Act ascertaining the Gauge and Tare of Tobacco-
Hogsheads; and to prevent cropping, cutting, and defacing To-
bacco taken on board Ships or Vessels upon Freight; and for
laying Impositions on Tobacco per the Hogshead, for the Support
of Government; and for the encouraging Settlements in this
Province, by ascertaining the Manner of paying his Lordship's
Alienation Fines and Quit-Rents, for the Term therein proposed ;
and for the taking off the Three-pence per Hogshead formerly
raised for the Publick Charge.

Whereas, it is evident to this General Assembly, That unless some
Provision be made for the Improvement of the Staple of Tobacco,
the People of Maryland, whose present Dependance is on the Pro-
duce of that Commodity, must be inevitably reduced to want common
Necessaries, or to fall upon some other Ways and Means, however
difficult, to supply themselves.
Be It Therefore Enacted, by the Right Honourable the Lord
Proprietary, by and with the Advice and Consent of his Lordship's
Governour, and the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly, and the
Authority of the same, That every labouring Taxable Person, work-
ing in Tobacco, (except such Persons as are herein after-mentioned,)
and every Overseer shall have Liberty to tend Six Thousand
Tobacco-Plants Yearly, during the Continuance of this Act, and no
more: And that every Housekeeper, whether Male or Female, having
no Taxables, shall be allowed to tend for him or herself, Ten Thou-
sand Plants, and no more: And every House-keeper, whether Male
or Female, having no more than one Taxable, shall be allowed to
rend for him or herself, Seven Thousand Plants, and no more: And
for such Taxable, the like Number of Plants, and no more: And
that every Male Child, from Twelve to Sixteen Years of Age, and
every Male Servant within the same Ages, and each Slave, Male or
Female, within the same Ages, belonging to any of the fore-
mentioned Housekeepers, shall be allowed to tend Three Thousand
Plants, and no more: And that every such Housekeeper, having One
White Woman Servant, shall be allowed to tend for such Servant,
Three Thousand Tobacco-Plants, and no more: And such House-
keeper, having more than One White Woman Servant, shall have