on his marriage with his said wife, settled on her an annuity of five hundred pounds sterling for life for her jointure, in case she should survive him, so that the profits of the estate devised to the son John Spotswood were so far from paying his father's debts, and raising the younger childrens fortunes during his minority, that when he arrived to the age of twenty-one years, and the accounts of the executors were settled, by order of the general court, such profits fell about three thousand pounds short of paying the said annuity, the maintenance of the children, and the necessary expenses of the estate, which sum the said John Spotswood was by decree of the said court obliged to pay, besides being liable for the said debts and fortunes, which were greatly increased by the growing interest thereof.

III. And whereas the said daughters Anna Catharina and Dorothea, having respectively married, became entitled to their fortunes, and the said John Spotswood, not being able to borrow money on the security of his lands to discharge the same, used his utmost endeavours to sell as much of the said Orange and Culpeper lands as would raise the said fortunes and the interest thereof, and frequently advertised publick sales thereof, at which he sold nineteen thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine acres to different persons, for about four thousand pounds in the whole, which sum being greatly short of the amount of the said daughters fortunes, and several decrees and judgments having passed against the said John Spotswood, as well for the balance thereof as for his father's debts, which he had no present means of discharging, he was therefore obliged to draw several bills of exchange on merchants in Great Britain, no way indebted to him, thereby to gain time, and devise some means of raising the money so recovered of him, which bills were returned protested, and now rcmain unsatisfied, besides which several creditors of the said major-general Spotswood having obtained judgments for their debts, to ascertain the same, forbore to sue out executions thereupon, and are yet unpaid such debts.

IV. And whereas the said Robert Spotswood the son, having attained his age of twenty-one years, became entitled to his fortune, and, by deed made and executed between the said John Spotswood and Robert Spotswood, it was agreed that the said Robert should hold all the said Orange and Culpeper lands until the rents

and profits thereof should fully satisfy and pay the said fortune of three thousand pounds, and the interest there

of.

V. And whereas it appears to have been the will and intention of major-general Spotswood that his debts and younger childrens fortunes should be chargeable on his other estate, and not on his mine tract of land or iron works, the profits of which he intended for his eldest son, to enable him to maintain his family, and make provision for any younger sons he might have, out of such profits; and the rather as the said general Spotswood does not in his said will take any notice of such younger sons, although he empowers the said John to charge the entailed estate with a fortune of one thousand pounds for each daughter he should have, notwithstanding which all the profits of the said iron works, from the time of the death of the said general Spotswood to the time of the death of the said John Spots, wood, were applied towards the payment of the said debts and fortunes, and the maintenance of the children, except what was necessary for the support of the said John Spotswood's family, and what he laid out in the purchase of about nine thousand acres of the land so sold by him, and which cost one thousand pounds current money, and about fifty slaves, in order to make provision for his younger son.

VI. And whereas the said John Spotswood died some time in the year one thousand seven hundred and fiftyeight, leaving Mary his widow, and four children, Alexander his eldest son and heir, John, Anne, and Mary, his younger children, having first made his last will and testament in writing, and therein, according to the pow er given him by his father's will charged the entailed estate with the sum of one thousand pounds sterling for cach of his said daughters, and gave to his said daughter Anne a mulatto girl slave called Betty, and to his daughter Mary a negro girl slave named Phillis, and all the rest of his estate he gave to his said younger son John Spotswood in fee-simple, and of his said will appointed John Robinson, esquire, Bernard Moore, John Champe, Edmund Pendleton, and Roger Dixon, gentlemen, and Nicholas Seward, executors, as by the said will, remaining of record in the said county court of Spotsylvania, may more fully appear; and after the death of the said John Spotswood, the said Bernard Moore alone undertook the execution of the said will,

the other executors having hitherto declined to act therein, and the said Bernard Moore was moreover by the general court appointed guardian to the said sons Alexander and John Spotswood, who are under the age of fourteen years.

VII. And whereas the said John Spotswood deceased, by having drawn the said bills of exchange, had so far made the said debts his own that actions at law might be commenced against his executors, and by that means the whole estate devised by him to his said younger son would in the first instance be swept away, and though the said younger son might in a court of equity be relieved out of the entailed estate (except the mine tract and iron works) as to so much of the said debts as were properly chargeable thereon, yet such relief would be tedious and expensive, and involve the family in dissentions and lawsuits, and at the same time be prejudicial to the heir in taille, it being very probable that the reversion of the said Orange and Culpeper lands, after satisfying the arrears of fortune due to the said Robert Spotswood, could not be sold for the full value thereof, and it being deemed for the benefit of the said heir and younger son, as well as the creditors, that the said Bernard Moore should be allowed to apply the profits of the iron works (which were very considerable) with the rents and profits of the other estate, for and towards discharging the said debts, whereby the said tenanted lands might be exonerated, and saved for the heir, and the smaller estate devised to his younger son, preserved for him, which was the more just and reasonable as there were not sufficient of the entailed slaves to carry on the said iron works, but it was necessary that some of the slaves of the younger son should be employed therein, wherefore in and by an act of Assembly made in the first year of your majesty's reign, entitled, An Act to enable the executors of the will of John Spotswood, esquire, deceased, to pay the debts and legacies due from the estate of majorgeneral Alexander Spotswood, and for other purposes therein mentioned, the said Bernard Moore, or the acting executor or executors of the will of the said John Spotswood, deceased, or the guardian for the time being of the said sons Alexander and John, were empowered and required to apply the profits of the whole estate, as well the iron works, and the tenanted entailed estate, after the said Robert Spotswood's demand was

satisfied, as the other fee-simple estate of the said John Spotswood, in the first place for and towards the necessary maintenance and education of the children of the said John Spotswood, and the residue in discharge and satisfaction of the debts due from him and the estate of his said father, and as soon as such debts should be satisfied and paid then the profits of the whole entailed estate should be applied to the benefit of the heir in the same manner as if the said act had never been made, and from thenceforth the said younger son John Spotswood should be seized of the said nine thousand and forty-eight acres of land so devised to him by the will of his said father, to him and his heirs for ever, and should also be entitled to the other lands and slaves, and personal estate, devised to him by the said will, in manner, and on the terms therein mentioned, as by the said act may among other things more fully appear.

VIII. And whereas, pursuant to the directions of the said act of assembly, the said Bernard Moore hath applied the profits of the whole estate, after maintaining and educating the children, towards the payment of the debts, whereby considerable sums have been discharged, but there still remains due of the said debts about nine thousand pounds, which with the growing interest thereof cannot be discharged by such profits in many years, and most of the creditors refusing to wait for such slow payment have threatened to levy executions for their debts, whereby all the slaves devised to the said younger son will be taken away, the carrying on the iron works impeded, and the salutary purposes of the said act wholly defeated, and it hath been represented to this assembly that it will be for the benefit of the heir and younger son, as well as the creditors, to sell part of the entailed lands, and satisfy some of the most pressing creditors, and thereby reduce the debts to a sum which might be paid by the said Bernard Moore in a reasonable time, in the method directed by the said recited act.

IX. And whereas notice hath been published three Sundays successively in the several churches of the parishes of St. Mark, St. Thomas, and St. George, in the said counties of Culpeper, Orange, and Spotslyvania, that application would be made to this present General Assembly for an act to empower the said Bernard Moore to sell some of the said entailed lands, for the purposes aforesaid, pursuant to your majesty's instructions.

X. May it therefore please your most excellent majesty, at the humble suit of the said Bernard Moore, that it may be enacted, And be it enacted by the Lieutenant-Governour, Council and Burgesses, of this present General Assembly, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the said Bernard Moore, or the acting executor or executors of the will of the said John Spotswood, or the guardian of the said son Alexander Spotswood for the time being, shall be, and he or they is and are hereby empowered, with the consent and approbation of John Robinson, esquire, Edmund Pendleton, Roger Dixon, and John Campbell, gentlemen, or any two of them, to sell and dispose of such and so much of the said entailed lands (the mine tract excepted) as he or they shall judge most convenient and necessary (so as that the whole sum of money to be raised by such sale does not amount to more than six thousand pounds) for the best price that may be got for the same, and convey such lands so sold to the purchaser or purchasers, who shall from thenceforth hold the same respectively, to them, and their heirs, for ever; and the said Bernard Moore, or such executor or executors, or guardians, shall apply the money arising from such sales towards the payment of the debts due from the said John Spotswood, or the said major-general Spotswood, rendering due accounts of such sales and payments; and the said Bernard Moore, or such executor or executors, or guardian, shall apply the profits of the remaining estate, of which the said John Spotswood died possessed, to the payment of the residue of the said debts, the maintenance of the children, and such other uses as in and by the said recited act is directed.

XI. Saving to the king's most excellent majesty, his heirs and successours, and every person and persons, bodies politick and corporate, their respective heirs and successours, other than the persons claiming under the will of the said major-general Alexander Spotswood, all such estate, right, title, interest, claim, or demand, as they, every, or any of them, should or might claim, if this act had never been made.

XII. Provided always. That the execution of this act shall be, and the same is hereby suspended, until his majesty's approbation thereof shall be obtained.

E-VOL. 8.