A Supplement to an Act Entitled, An Act to Improve and Repair the Streets in Elizabethtown, in Washington County, and for Other Purposes Therein Mentioned, ch. 52, §§ 1-7, Md. Laws Lib. JG. No. 1. fol. 627.
"C H A P. LII.
*1791, ch. 24. A Supplement to an act,* entitled, An act to improve and repair the streets in
Elizabeth-town, in Washington county, and for other purposes therein mentioned.
Lib. JG. No. 1. fol. 627.
WHEREAS, by the act, entitled, An act to improve and repair the streets in Elizabeth-town, in Washington county, and for other purposes therein mentioned, commissioners were appointed to regulate the posting of footways in the sides of the streets, and paving the same, and were empowered to remove nuisances in said town, but not to remove the same at the expence of the persons causing the same; and the said commissioners complain to this general assembly, that the said footways are greatly injured by persons riding and leading horses on the same; and the said commissioners have represented, that the inhabitants of the said town are frequently endangered by persons straining their horses in the streets of said town, and that frequent accidents happen in said town by the firing of guns and pistols therein, and that the houses of said town are frequently in danger by persons permitting their chimnies to catch fire during dry seasons;
II. BE IT ENACTED, by the General Assembly of Maryland, that if any person or persons shall ride or lead any horse or horses on the footways of the said town, except to enter any alley or gate, such person or persons shall forfeit the sum of five shillings current money.
III. AND BE IT ENACTED, that if any person of persons shall strain any horse or horses in the streets of said town, such person or persons shall forfeit and pay the sum of five shillings current money for every such offence;
IV. AND BE IT ENACTED, that if any person or persons shall fire any gun or pistol in the said town, such person or persons shall, for every such offence, forfeit and pay the sum of five shillings current money.
V. AND BE IT ENACTED, That the said commissioners, when they discover any nuisances in said town, shall direct the person or persons causing the same to remove the said nuisances, and if such person or persons shall not remove the same within five days after such notice, the said commissioners shall cause the same to be removed, and charge the money expended in the removing the same to the person or persons causing the same.
VI. AND BE IT ENACTED, That if any person shall permit or suffer his chimney to catch fire, so as to blaze out of the top, such person or persons shall forfeit and pay the sum of seven shillings and fix-pence current money for every such offence.
VII. AND BE IT ENACTED, That all fines and forfeitures imposed by this act, and all sums of money laid out by the commissioners of said town for the removing of nuisances, shall and may be recovered by the said commissioners before any single magistrate, in the same manner as small debts out of court, and applied to the use of said town."
N.B. The original text on the Maryland Archive is missing a page that contains sections five through seven of this law. The closest available open-access representation is Kilty's Laws of Maryland in two volumes. The excerpt included below is from the second volume, published in 1800. The text only version of the law at the Maryland Archives is complete, and matches what is found in Kilty. The first PDF below is the complete version found in Kiltey and the second is the original text from 1792 that is missing the final two sections.
1800, MD, Session Laws 1792, Ch 52
1792, MD, original_incompleteCh52
William Kilty, ed., The Laws of Maryland: To Which Are Prefixed the Original Charter, with an English Translation, the Bill of Rights and Constitution of the State, as Originally Adopted by the Convention, with the Several Alterations by Acts of Assembly, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of the General Government, and the Amendments Made Thereto, with an Index to the Laws, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution, vol. 2 (Annapolis, MD: Frederick Green, 1800), [not paginated]. Chapter 52—A Supplement to an Act, Entitled, an Act to Improve and Repair the Streets in Elizabeth-Town, in Washington County, and for Other Purposes Therein Mentioned, §§ 1-7. (Undated.)