Summary
Statutory Text
I. WHEREAS it is necessary, in this time of danger, that the militia of this Colony should be well regulated and disciplined […] that from and after the passing of this Act every County Lieutenant, Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, and other inferiour Officer, bearing any comission in the Militia of this colony, shall be an inhabitant of, and resident in, the county of which he is or shall be commissioned to be an Officer of the Militia.
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IV. […] That every person so as aforesaid enlisted (except free Mulattoes, Negroes, and Indians) shall be armed in the manner following, that is to say: Every soldier shall be furnished with a firelock well fixed, a bayonet fitted to the same, a double cartouch-box, and three Charges of Powder, and constantly appear with the same at the Time and Place appounted for Muster and Exercise, and shall also keep at his Place of abode one Pound of Powder and four Pounds of Ball, and bring the same with him into the field when he shall be required; and if it shall be cerfitied to the Court of any County, by Order of the Court Martial, that any Soldier enlisted in such Company is so poor as to not be able to purchase the Arms aforesaid, then such court shall, and they are hereby required, immediatley to depute some Person to send for the same to Great Britain by the first Opportunity, and to levy the Charge thereof in the next county levy, which arms so to be sent for shall be marked with the Name of the County. ANd if any person shall presume to buy or sell any such arms, so provided as aforesaid, then, in such Case, every Person so buying or selling shall forfeit and pay the Sum of six pounds; to be recovered, with costs, by Information, before the Court of the County to which the Arms shall belong, or in the Court of the County wherein the Offender or Offenders shall reside, one moiety whereof shall be to and for the Use of the County to which the Arms shall belong, for the purchasing other Arms, and the other Moiety to the Informer. And all Arms purchased by any County, and delivered to any poor Solier as aforesaid, shall, on his Death or Removal out of the County, be delivered to the chief Officer of the Militia in the County, or to the Captain of the Company to which such poor Soldier did belong, to be by such Officer delivered to any other poor Soldier that the Commanding Officer of the said County shall adjudge unable to provide himself with Arms as aforesaid.