A Bill for Confirming the Titles of Purchases of Escheated and forfeited Slaves (December 20, 1779)

[20 December 1779]

Whereas some Sales have been already made and many others will soon be made under the Act concerning Escheats and Forfeitures from British Subjects, upon certificates from the Clerk of the General Cou[rt] that no claim had been filed in due time, and it hath been appr[e]hended that shou'd the Inquisitions prove defective in Subst[ance] or the particular Requisitions of the Law not be complied with the former owners may at a future Day reclaim their Estates and expel the Purchasers from the Possession, and such apprehensions & Doubts may deter many Persons from purchasing and cause such Estates to sell at an under Value—

Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, that in every Case where an Inquisition hath been or shall be taken and the Estate found to belong to a British Subject, in which the Clerk of the General Court hath certified or shall certify that no Claim hath been filed to any such Estate, or where any Claim shall have been filed and discussed for the Commonwealth the Title of the Purchaser or Purchasers thereto, [shall be, and is hereby confirmed] to him, [her, or them] & his her or their Heirs and Assigns forever, upon due Paym[ent] of the Purchase Money; notwithstanding any Defect in the Inquisition, or that the Requisitions of the above recited Act may not have been complied with. Saving the Right of all persons to assert their Claim to the Money arising from such Sales, as by the said Act and one other Act passed at the present Session of Assembly entitled an Act (to amend the Act concerning Escheats and forfeitures from British Subjects) is directed.