Pennsylvania Act 1792-1602 (session 3) — LAND OFFICE - PUBLIC LANDS - HOLDERS OF UNSATISFIED WARRANTS

Act text

AN ACT

To authorize the Receiver General of the Land Office to carry monies received into that office since a given period, for lands sold, and which have not been or shall be secured to the purchasers, to the credit of such purchasers, or their assigns, in payments already due, and hereafter to become due, to the commonwealth, for the purchase of any lands within the same.

WHEREAS divers persons who have heretofore purchased lands within this state, and procured warrants for the same, have not been able to find vacant lands within the descriptions contained in such warrants, and no provision is made to allow the monies paid on such warrants to go in payment, or part payment, for other lands, or to afford to such purchasers any other relief:

Section 1. Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That where any warrants since the first day of April, 1784, have issued or hereafter shall issue from the Land Office, and hath not been or cannot be executed in the whole or in part, by reason that the lands therein described, or some part of them, have been previously appropriated by or for any other person or persons, according to law, or, having been executed, do interfere with some prior appropriation as aforesaid, the deputy surveyor of the district or county shall, at the reasonable request of the party, his heirs, executors, administrators or assigns, certify to the Surveyor General's Office whether any, and how much, of the lands in the said warrant described, hath not been or cannot be surveyed, for the reasons aforesaid, or being surveyed, doth interfere with any prior survey or appropriation; and the Surveyor General, whenever he shall have proof of the same, shall, at the like reasonable request, certify to the Receiver General the number of acres which shall remain unsatisfied on any warrant issued after the first day of April, 1784.

Section 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That whenever it shall, by the original receipts, or other legal voucher, or by the entries made in his books, appear to the Receiver General, that any person or persons have paid into the Land Office any moneys or certificate, for lands granted to them by virtue of warrants issued after the first day of April, 1784, and which they have not obtained, or that they have paid any moneys or certificates over and above what was due to the commonwealth for the lands obtained by virtue of such warrants, he shall carry the said money or balance to the credit of such person or persons, his, her or their heirs, executors, administrators or assigns, in payments already due, or hereafter to become due to the commonwealth, for the purchase of any lands within the same, together with lawful interest for the same, from the time of the original payment to the time of such credit being applied for and made.