entitled, or do any act or thing, with intent to lessen or evade the tolls for passing through the gate established under this act, such person or persons, for every such offence, shall forfeit to the said president and directors, not less than three nor more than ten dollars, to be recovered before any justice of the peace, with costs, in the same manner that small debts are recoverable: Provided,Proviso. That it shall not be lawful for the company to ask, demand or receive from or for persons living on or adjacent to the said road, who may have occasion to pass by said road, upon the ordinary business relating to their farms, so far as the limits of the same may extend on the roads, respectively, who shall not have any other convenient road or way by which they may pass, from one part to another part thereof, any toll for passing on said turnpike.
Approved, July 13, 1813.
Statute Ⅰ.
Chap. XII.—An Act to incorporate a company for making a certain turnpike road in the county of Washington, in the District of Columbia.
Commissioners appointed for receiving subscriptions, &c. &c.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That William Marbury, John Hoye, George Johnson, William Steuart, William Whann, Washington Bowie, John W. Bronaugh, Edgar Patterson, and John Eliason be, and they are hereby appointed a board of commissioners, a majority of whom to constitute a quorum, with full powers to receive and enter in such book or books as they may deem proper, by themselves or their agents, subscriptions for raising a capital stock of ten thousand dollars, in shares of fifty dollars each, for the purpose of opening, gravelling, and improving a road in the counties of Washington and Alexandria, in theDirection of road. District of Columbia, from the intersection of Falls street and Water street in the town of Georgetown, to the boundary line of the District of Columbia, in the most direct and practicable route towards Leesburg, conforming as nearly as shall be found advantageous and convenient to the present main road, leading from the said intersection towards Leesburg, and through the counties of Washington and Alexandria aforesaid Provided,Proviso. That no subscription shall be received, unless the sum of five dollars be first paid into the hands of such agent or other person, as the said commissioners may authorize to receive it; the times, places, and manner of receiving and entering subscriptions shall be prescribed by said commissioners, and advertised in such gazettes as they may deem expedient; and whenever one hundred shares or more shall be subscribed, the commissioners, or a majority of them, shall give notice in some newspaper, printed in the District of Columbia, of a time and place to be by them appointed, for the subscribers to proceed to organize the corporation, by an election of officers: and all persons who may then be, or thereafter may become proprietors of shares in the said capital stock, either as subscribers for the same, or as the legal representatives, successors, or assignees of such subscribers, shall become one body politic and corporate in deed and in law, by the name and style of the Georgetown and Leesburg Turnpike Company, and by the same shall have perpetual succession, and all the privileges belonging to a corporation; and shall be capable of taking and holding their said capital stock and the profits thereof, and of enlarging the same by new subscriptions, if found necessary to fulfil the intent of this act, and of purchasing, taking and holding, to them and their successors and assigns, in fee simple, or for any lesser estate, all such lands, tenements, and hereditaments, and estate real and personal, as shall be necessary and useful in the prosecution of their work, and of suing and being sued, of having a common seal, and of doing all and every other matter and thing concerning the subject aforesaid, which a corporation or body politic may do.
