| JOHN FRANCIS MERCER, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR
belonging to the said church, society or congregation, whether
the same have been given, granted or devised, directly to the
said church, society or congregation, or to any person in trust for
them; Provided, that the person or persons holding lands, or goods
and chattels, in trust for any particular church or society as aforesaid,
shall voluntarily make over, by indenture proper for that purpose,
to the trustees or body corporate of such particular church or
society, such lands or chattels, for the use and benefit of said church,
society or congregation. |
1802.
CHAP. 111.
Proviso. |
8. AND BE IT ENACTED, That all and every the
said corporation
or trustees, established or to be established in virtue of this
act, and their successors, shall be capable in law to purchase and
hold, in fee-simple, (a) a quantity of land, not exceeding two acres,
for the use of any one church, society or congregation, by gift or grant
of any person or persons, or bodies politic, capable in law to make
the same, provided such gift or grant be made by indenture, duly
executed and recorded agreeably to law, and in no other manner
whatever; and also that every the said body corporate, and their
successors, or a majority of them, severally, by their respective
name, may take and receive any sum or sums of money, any kind,
manner or portion, of goods and chattels, that shall be sold or
given to them as aforesaid by any person or persons, bodies politic
or corporate, capable in law to make a gift or sale thereof, and employ
the same for the benefit and use of the particular church, society
or congregation, whereunto they respectively belong, as a body
politic or corporate; Provided, that all and every gift, grant,
bargain, sale, or deed of transfer, made by any person or persons,
and not intended to take effect and vest in any religious body or
corporation during the life of the giver, grantor or seller, but to
become their right and property after his, her or their decease, shall
be utterly null, void, and of no effect; And provided also, that
the
clear yearly value of the estates, rents, annuities, or other hereditaments,
of any church, society or congregation, thus incorporated,
shall not amount to more than the clear yearly value of two thousand
dollars, and all gifts, grants, sales and transfers, to any the
said corporations, or their successors, after the clear yearly value
of their estate shall amount to two thousand dollars, and all bargains
and purchases to be made by any of them, which may increase
the yearly value of the said estates above and beyond the standard
here fixed, shall be utterly null, void, and of no effect.
(a) By 1815, ch. 222, permission
is given to hold in fee simple, or for any less
estate, and lands, rents or annuities, by gift, bargain, sale or devise,
and such
lands to rent or lease; also to take and receive any money, goods or chattels,
given,
sold or bequeathed to them, and to apply the same to the use of their churches
as effectually as the same could have been applied by the vestry of the
Protestant
Episcopal church to their respective parishes; provided the clear yearly
value of
the estate, (exclusive of the rents of pews, &c.) does not exceed that
allowed to
any vestry. |
May purchase
land, and receive
money. |
9. AND BE IT ENACTED, That the limitations
in point of annual
value aforesaid shall not be understood to affect the estate, property,
interest or inheritance, or the income arising therefrom,
which any christian church, congregation or society, may be in
possession of at the time of passing this act.
By 1814, ch. 58, the Maryland conference
of the Methodist Episcopal
Church to have all the benefits arising from all gifts or grants of property,
&c. |
Limitations of annual
value not to
affect the estate of
any church. |
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