Resolutions

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1. The Assessors of the several Townships, Boroughs, Wards, and Districts, within this Province, who have not performed the said service, are required, on or before the 25th day of May next ensuing, to make, in writing, and deliver an exact list of the names and surnames of every male white person capable of bearing arms, between the ages of sixteen and fifty years, (Ministers of the Gospel of all denominations, Schoolmasters in actual employ, and Servants purchased bona fide and for a valuable consideration, only excepted,) residing in such Township, Borough, Ward, or district, to the Commissioners of the County, chosen by virtue of the act for raising of County Rates and Levies.

2. If any Assessor shall neglect or refuse to perform the duty aforesaid, the Commissioners of the respective Counties, or any two of them, are hereby required and enjoined to fine him in any sum not exceeding ten Pounds, unless such Assessor' s refusal proceeds from conscientious motives; and such fine shall be levied and recovered in the same manner as is directed by the laws of this Province for levying and recovering fines imposed on Assessors refusing or neglecting to perform the duties therein required of them, to be paid into the hands of the respective County Treasurers, to be by them delivered to the same person, and applied to the same use, as the other moneys directed to be levied by the Resolves of this House in their present sitting.

3. The Commissioners of the respective Counties, or any two of them, are hereby required and enjoined to appoint some proper person to make out the list aforesaid, in the place of the Assessor so refusing or neglecting; which person, so appointed, shall make out and return such list to the Commissioners on or before the 1st day of May next ensuing.

4. Every Assessor, or person appointed in his place as aforesaid, shall, before he begins to make out the lists aforesaid, take an oath or affirmation, which any Magistrate of the County is hereby required and enjoined to administer, without fee or reward, "That he will go to the place or places of abode of all and every person and persons residing within his Township, Borough, Ward, or District, and make a faithful and diligent inquiry of, and endeavour, by all other lawful ways and means in his power, to procure a true and exact account and list of the names and surnames of all male white persons capable of bearing arms, who are between the ages of sixteen and fifty years, residing within his Township, Borough, Ward, or District, and will make a return of such account or list (if an Assessor) to the Commissioners of the County, respectively, in which he resides, on or before the twenty-fifth day of May next ensuing, or (if a person appointed in the place of an Assessor) on or before the 1st day of June next ensuing."

5. Every Assessor, or other person appointed and acting in the place of an Assessor, as aforesaid, shall receive for his trouble in making out and returning such lists, the sum of four Shillings for every day he shall be employed in that service.

6. If any dispute shall arise concerning the age of any Non-Associator, the same shall be determined before the Commissioners of the County, or any two of them, by oath or affirmation of the person whose age is in question; which oath or affirmation the said Commissioners, or any of them, is hereby required to administer, or by any other proper evidence.

7. The Captains of every Company are required and enjoined, on or before the 15th day of June next ensuing, to deliver, under his hand, to the Colonel of the Battalion to which he belongs, a copy of the Articles of Association, signed by the Associators of his Company, therein mentioning

v5:704

8. The said Commissioners, or any two of them, are required, on or before the 1st day of July next ensuing, to meet together, and cause their Clerks to make out fair lists of the names and surnames of all persons mentioned in the duplicates returned to them as aforesaid, with their places of abode, who appear by the duplicates returned by the Colonels not to have signed the Articles of Association; and thereupon the said Commissioners are required to charge every such person not associating, over and above the rates and assessments set upon him by virtue of the laws of this Province, the sum of three Pounds ten Shillings, on the lists made out by their orders as aforesaid.

9. If any Apprentice is willing to associate, and his Master or Mistress will not permit him so to do, or detains him from the parade on any of the days of exercise herein appointed, such Master or Mistress shall be liable to the payment of three Shillings and six Pence for each time he or she shall detain his or her said Apprentice; and if any Apprentice of suitable age shall neglect or refuse to appear on any of the said days of exercise, not being detained by his said Master or Mistress, such Apprentice, if of estate, shall, by his Guardian, pay such penalty.

10. If any Commissioner shall neglect or refuse to perform any of the duties required of him by these resolutions, such Commissioner shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten Pounds for every such offence, unless such refusal proceeds from conscientious motives; such fine to be recovered, levied, and applied in the same manner, by the same persons, and for the same uses, as the fines arising from the delinquency of the Assessors; and in such case, the Prothonotaries of the several Counties of this Province, respectively, or their immediate Deputies, are hereby enjoined, by and with the concurrence of any two Magistrates of said County, to appoint some suitable and proper person in the place and stead of such Commissioner so refusing or neglecting as aforesaid; which person, so appointed, shall have the same power and authority, and perform the several duties hereby required of the said Commissioner; or, on failure thereof, shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten Pounds, to be applied as aforesaid; and the said Prothonotary and Justices shall proceed to appoint another, and so as often as it shall become necessary.

11. If any person charged by the Commissioners as a Non-Associator, shall, at the day of appeal, produce to the Commissioners a certificate from the Commanding Officer of any Battalion, Troop of Horse, or Company of Artillery, that he has become an Associator in such Battalion, Troop, or Company, the Commissioners, or any two of them, shall make an allowance in favour of such person of three Shillings and six Pence for each of the days of exercise appointed by this House, after such person became an Associator, on which he attended his Battalion, Troop, or Company, or has been fined for non-attendance.

12. If any person charged by the Commissioners as a Non-Associator, shall die before the day of appeal, or if, before that day, an accommodation shall be made between Great Britain and the Colonies of this Continent, and, in consequence thereof, the Military Association in this Province shall be dissolved; in either of those cases, the Commissioners, or any two of them, shall make an abatement in the assessment charged as aforesaid, of three Shillings and six Pence for each of the days of exercise aforesaid, after the death of such Non-Associator, or the dissolution of the Association.

13. If any Non-Associator, or the Parent, Guardian, Master, or Mistress of any Non-Associator, between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one years, or any other Non-Associator, shall think him or herself aggrieved by the assessment aforesaid, he or she may appeal to the Commissioners of the County wherein he or she resides, who, or any two of them, shall meet together on the 10th day of October next ensuing, and so, from day to day, as long as may be necessary, and at such place or places as the Commissioners, or any two of them, shall appoint; of which days and places of meeting they shall cause the Collectors to give

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14. The said Commissioners of the respective Counties, or any two of them, within ten days after hearing and determining the appeals made to them, shall rectify and adjust the lists returned to them as aforesaid, and the assessments thereon, and deliver to the Treasurers of the respective Counties a true account of the sums total which every Collector shall be charged with, in pursuance of these Resolves; and shall cause their Clerks to make out and deliver fair duplicates thereof to the respective Collectors of the Townships, Boroughs, Wards, and Districts within their respective Counties, who shall collect the said sums, keeping exact and separate accounts of the sums so charged on Non-Associators, and shall pay the same into the hands of the respective County Treasurers, who shall pay the same into the hands of Michael Hillegas, Esquire, to be applied to the same purposes as the fines and penalties collected from the Association are limited and directed. And all persons shall be liable to the payment of the said sums, in the same manner, and the Collectors shall have the same powers, and shall proceed in collecting and levying the said sums, and shall be accountable in the same manner, as is directed by the Act intituled "An Act for raising County Rates and Levies."

15. The allowances to the Collectors of such assessments, and to the Treasurers, respectively, shall be the same with those appointed and directed in the collection of fines from Associators for non-attendance.

16. The Treasurers of the respective Counties, before they enter on the duties hereby required of them, shall give the like security, for the faithful discharge of their office, to the Commissioners of their several Counties, that they are now obliged by the laws of this Province to give for the due payment of Provincial Taxes.

17. All and every person and persons who are required or enjoined by these Resolutions, or any of them, to discharge or perform any of the offices or duties herein before-mentioned, are hereby further earnestly and solemnly required and enjoined, with all diligence and fidelity, strenuously to exert themselves in discharging and performing such offices and duties, and every part thereof, as they regard the freedom, security, and happiness of their country.

Whereas a number of spirited Germans, and other foreigners, not entitled to the privileges of freemen of this Province, have cheerfully associated in its defence, and shown a readiness to expose their lives therefor, if necessary:

Resolved, therefore, That every such person producing a certificate, under the hand and seal of the commanding officer of any Battalion in the Military Association of this Province, signifying that such person has signed the Articles of the Association, and served pursuant thereto, and, in case of an invasion or alarm, has, upon his own account, gone forth into actual service, such person shall be, and is hereby, recommended to the special notice and encouragement of this and any future Assembly, in order to his being put in the same condition, and entitled to the same rights and privileges, as natural-born subjects within this Province now are.

Upon motion, Resolved, That the Committee of Safety procure a sufficient number of complete copies of the "Rules and Regulations for the better government of the Military Association in Pennsylvania," "The Articles of the said Association," and the "Resolutions directing the mode of levying Taxes on Non-Associators in Pennsylvania," as amended at this sitting, to be immediately printed in the English and German languages, and transmitted to the Commanding Officers of the several Battalions, and to the Commissioners of the several Counties in this Province.