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Oppression by barony clerks:
No sheriff shall appoint a barony clerk,
nor any one act under colour thereof. Penalty on sheriff 50l.
Person acting to be committed on information on oath by a justice till assises, unless sufficient bail.
if then convicted, committed 3 months, and fined not above 50l.
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III. And whereas several sheriffs in several counties in this kingdom have of late years taken upon them to appoint several obscure and indigent persons to exercise a pretended office, called the office of barony-clerk, in the several baronies of their several and respective counties; which persons when so appointed have taken upon them to hold courts within such barony, in such manner as the high sheriff or his deputy-sheriff is impowered by law to do in his county, to the great oppression of his Majesty's subjects in the several counties where such barony clerks are appointed, and contrary to the known rules of law: be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no sheriff within any county of this kingdom shall from and after the first day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and thirty appoint any person or persons whatsoever to be a barony-clerk within his county; and, in case of such appointment, that no person whatsoever shall take upon him to hold any court, or exercise any power or authority whatsoever under colour thereof; and if any sheriff in any county of this kingdom shall from and after the said first day of May in the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty offend herein, he shall forfeit and pay for every such offence the sum of fifty pounds; which said sum of fifty pounds shall and may be recovered by action of debt in any of his Majesty's Four courts in Dublin; wherein no essoin, priviledge, protection, or wager of law, shall be allowed, [Rep., Stat. Law Rev. (I.) Act, 1878.] by any person or persons who shall sue for the same; and if any person shall from and after the said first day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and thirty take upon him to exercise the said pretended office of barony-clerk, upon information given thereof upon oath unto any justice of the peace of the county, within which he shall so exercise the same, such justice of the peace shall upon such information, unless sufficient bail shall be given by such offender, commit him to the county-goal, there to remain until the next assizes to be held for the said county; where, if he shall be convicted of such offence, the judge or judges of assize, before whom he shall be so convicted, shall forthwith commit him to the said county-goal for three months, and shall also fine him for such offence in a sum not exceeding fifty pounds sterling.
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