Eligibility of assistants.

Vacancy,

how filled.

Act subject to will of directors.

of this act and on the first Monday in April in every year thereafter and choose by a majority of voices out of their own body, or from the stockholders at large two persons who shall be called assistants, who shall serve for one year, or until others are chosen in their places which said assistants or either of them with the president shall assemble daily, (Sundays excepted) if need be for the dispatch of business, and shall have power and authority on behalf of the corporation to make insurances upon vessels, freight and goods, and houses and stores, and goods in houses and stores, and furniture in houses and upon lives, and for the ransom of persons in captivity, and for lending money upon bottomry and respondentia, and to fix premiums and times of payment, and to take notes for the same and all policies shall be subscribed by the president or in his absence resignation, or inability to act, by the two assistants and countersigned by the secretary, and shall be binding and obligatory upon the said corporation in like manner and with the like force and effect, as if the same were sealed with the common seal thereof: Provided however that no losses arising or claimed under any policy so subscribed shall be adjusted, settled or paid but by the said president and directors or a majority of them at a legal meeting for that purpose, which shall be convened in such way as the president and directors aforesaid shall from time to time prescribe.

And be it further enacted, That no person shall be eligible as assistant unless he holds in his own right at least twenty shares in the capital stock of the said company, which he shall not transfer during his continuance in the said office without thereby forfeiting the same and further that it shall be lawful for the said president and directors to allow the said assistants such salaries as they may think proper.

And be it further enacted, That in case of the death, resignation or inability to serve of the assistants or either of them such vacancy or vacancies shall be filled for the remainder of the year by an election at a meeting of the directors to be called especially for that purpose which meeting shall be called by the president or in his absence by the other assistant or in the absence of both by the secretary and notice thereof shall be published in at least two of the papers printed in the city of New York for five days immediately previous thereto.

And be it further enacted, That the business of the said company may be carried on in the manner prescribed by the ninth section of the act hereby amended if the president and directors for the time being shall think proper, in which case it shall be in their power to displace or supersede the assistants then in office.

Lisbon, town of, erected.

CHAP. 20.

AN ACT for erecting the ten townships of land on the river St.
Lawrence into a town by the name of Lisbon.

PASSED the 6th of March, 180г.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, That the ten townships of land heretofore sold under the authority of the people of this State, situate on the south east side of the river St. Lawrence and now being partly in the counties of Montgomery, Herkimer and Oneida, and known and distinguished on a map thereof filed by the surveyor general in the secretary's office by the

names of Louisville, Stockholm, Madrid, Potsdam, Lisbon, Canton Oswegatche, De Kalb, Hague and Cambray, shall be and hereby are erected into a town by the name of Lisbon and for the convenience of the inhabitants and settlers thereon, the same is annexed to, and hereafter to be considered as included in the county of Clinton. And the freeholders and inhabitants of the said town, and the town officers by them to be elected, shall have the like powers and priviledges as the freeholders, inhabitants and town officers of any other town in the said county of Clinton are or shall be entitled to and that the first town meeting of the inhabitants of the said town shall be held at the dwelling house of Alexander T. Turner, in the said town on the first Tuesday in April next.

CHAP. 21.

AN ACT to incorporate the Society of Mechanics of the city and vicinity of Albany, for purposes of education and charity.

PASSED the 6th of March, 1801.

WHEREAS Bernardus Evertson and others, mechanics and tradesmen Preamble. of the city of Albany and its vicinity, associated as a society under the style of The Albany Mechanics Society, for the laudable purposes of protecting and supporting such of their brethren as by sickness or accident may stand in need of assistance, and of relieving the widows and orphans of those who may die in indigent circumstances; and also of providing the means of instruction for their children; by their petition, presented to the legislature, have prayed to be incorporated, to enable them more beneficially to carry into effect their charitable intentions; therefore,

Mechanics,

rators.

Be it enacted, by the People of the State of New York, represented in Society of Senate and Assembly, That the said Bernardus Evertson, together with names of George Webster, Richard Allanson, John W. Fryer, Jared Skinner, David incorpoMulholland, James Davis, William Fowler, Austin Warner, Daniel Steele, William Mac Harg, Thomas Barker, Silas W. Howell, Elisha Dorr, Giles W. Porter, Ira Porter, John C. Fredenryck, William Easton, James Barclay, James Linacre, John Goodrich, John Mascraft, John Todd, John Harbeck, John Randall, George Klinck, Robert Hurst, James Lloyd, John Scovill, Wilhelmus G. Ryckman, Robert Boyd, John Barber, Isaac Hutton, Nathaniel Bunnel, John Grant, Thomas Mounsey, Charles R. Webster, John W. Wendell, James Hodge, James Young, David Osborn, Jacob Van Duzen, John Guest Junior, Ezra Ames, Garrit D. Garmo, John Macauley, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, James Hunter, Isaac Willet, Joseph Wilson, John Gates, Henry Abel, John A. Goewey, Philip Hooker, Elisha Putnam, Peter Meolhench, Walter Easton, John I. Van Alen, George Hutton, James Gibbons, Thomas Russel, Peter Furlong, Cale Russell, John Boardman; and all persons, being mechanics or tradesmen, and resident within the city of Albany or its vicinity, who shall hereby be members of the said society; shall be and hereby are ordained, constituted and declared, to be one body corporate and politic, in fact and in name by the name of The Albany Mechanics Society: And that Powers by that name they and their successors shall and may have perpetual and privileges of succession, and shall be persons in law capable of suing and being sued, corporapleading and being impleaded, answering and being answered unto, defending and being defended, in all courts and places whatsoever, in

tion.

Officers of the corporation.

Term of office;

mode of election.

all manner of actions, suits, complaints, matters and causes whatsoever: And that they and their successors may have a common seal, and may change and alter the same at their pleasure; and also that they and their successors, by the name of The Albany Mechanics Society, shall be in law capable of purchasing, holding and conveying any estate, real or personal, for the public use of the said corporation: Provided that the lands, tenements and hereditaments which it shall be lawful for the said corporation to hold, shall be only such as shall be requisite for the purpose of erecting a house or hall thereon, in which to meet and to transact the business of the said corporation, and for the purpose of erecting a school house or place of instruction for the children of the members of the said corporation or such as shall have been bona fide mortgaged to it by way of security, or conveyed to it in satisfaction of debts previously contracted in the course of its business or purchased at sales on judgments which shall have been obtained for such debts; and provided also, that the amount of the real and personal estate which the said corporation are hereby enabled to hold, shall not at any one time exceed the sum of twenty five thousand dollars.

And be it further enacted, That the officers of the said corporation shall be a president, a first vice president, a second vice president, a treasurer and secretary, who shall be citizens of this State, and shall be appointed as herein after provided; and that for the due management of the affairs of the said corporation, and for the making and establishing of rules and regulations for its government, a board of trustees, to consist of fifteen persons, shall be elected, by ballot, once in each year, by the members of the said corporation, at their general annual meeting, to be held on the first Tuesday of February; who, together with the president and first and second vice presidents, shall have full power to make and prescribe all such bye-laws, rules, ordinances and regulations, as to them from time to time shall appear needful and proper, touching the management and disposition of the stock, estate property funds and effects of the said corporation; and all such other matters as appertain to the business, ends and purposes for which the said corporation is by this act instituted, and for no other purposes whatsoever: Provided, that the powers hereby vested in the said board of trustees shall not extend to the levying or requiring from the members of the said corporation, any payments towards encreasing the funds of the said corporation, or for any other purposes, exceeding the sum of one dollar from each of the said members in any one year: Provided also, that such bye-laws, rules and regulations be not repugnant to the constitution and laws of the United States or of this State: That Charles R. Webster shall be the first president of the said corporation; James Hodge first vice president thereof; Philip Hooker second vice president thereof, and Isaac Hutton the treasurer thereof, who shall hold their offices respectively until the first Tuesday of February next, and until others shall be chosen in their place; and John W. Fryer shall be the secretary of the said corporation, who shall hold his office until another shall be chosen in his place by the trustees, pursuant to the provisions of this act and the bye-laws of the said corporation.

And be it further enacted, That the president, first and second vice presidents and treasurer, shall hold their offices for one year and until others shall be chosen in their places, and shall be elected as follows; that is to say, the board of trustees shall, on or befor the second Tuesday of January in each year, by ballot, make a nomination of nine persons for the offices of president and first and second vice president, and of three persons for the office of treasurer, which nominations shall

be published for two weeks successively in one of the news papers printed in the city of Albany, and shall be certified and laid before the members of the corporation at their annual meeting, to be holden as herein before provided; and that from the said first mentioned list, so nominated and certified, the president and first and second vice president shall at the said annual meeting be elected by a majority of the members present; and in like manner from the said last mentioned list, the treasurer shall be elected: And that the secretary shall be appointed by the board of trustees, at such time and place and in such manner as shall be prescribed by the bye-laws of the said corporation and shall also hold his office for one year and until another shall be appointed in his place, and it shall be his duty to attend all meetings of the trustees and all meetings of the members of the said corporation.

how filled.

And be it further enacted, That if any vacancies shall happen in the Vacancies, offices of president, first vice president, second vice president or treasurer by death, resignation or removal, such vacancies shall be filled for the remainder of the year in which they may happen, by a special elec tion for that purpose, to be held and conducted in the same manner as the annual elections are holden, at such times and places as shall be prescribed by the bye-laws of the said corporation. And if any vacancy shall happen in the office of secretary, the same shall be filled by the board of trustees in such manner as shall be prescribed by the bye-laws of the said corporation.

elect not

tion.

And be it further enacted, That in case it should at any time happen Failure to that an election of trustees or other officers should not be made on any to dissolve day, when pursuant to this act, it ought to have been made, the said corporacorporation shall not for that cause be deemed to be dissolved, but it shall and may be lawful on any other day to hold and make such election in such manner as shall have been regulated by the laws and ordinances of the said corporation.

tion;

members.

And be it further enacted, That all elections and all meetings of the Meetings said corporation shall be made and held in a place certain, to be fixed of corporaand determined by the bye-laws of the said corporation; and that all quorum; such elections and meetings of the said corporation, so to be held as aforesaid, thirty five members thereof, and at all meetings of the board of trustees, eight members thereof, including the president, or in his absence the first vice president, or in his absence the second vice president, shall be considered as a quorum, and shall have full power to do and transact the business thereof; that the board of trustees shall hold four stated meetings in each year, one in every period of three months, and that all persons being mechanics or tradesmen and resident in the city of Albany or its vicinity, desiring to become members of the said corporation, shall be proposed to the said board, by at least two members of the corporation, at a quarterly meeting next preceding that in which the question of his admission shall be proposed: That all such questions shall be determined by ballot, and by the voice of two thirds of the members present; and all persons so admitted, on paying into the hands of the treasurer such sum of money as shall by the said bye-laws be directed, provided the same shall not exceed the sum of ten dollars, shall have their names entered in the general register, and shall be entitled to all the privileges and benefits arising therefrom.

And to the end that the funds of the said corporation may never be directed to any other than the charitable and benevolent ends and purposes of its institution,

Be it further enacted, That the corporation shall, within twenty days Account after the passing of this act, exhibit to the chancellor of this State, a full of property

to be exhibited.

and particular account of all the estate, real and personal, then vested in the said corporation, attested by the oath of the treasurer thereof, that the same is a true and perfect account; and shall also triennially between the first and last day of May, exhibit to the chancellor for the time being, a like account, together with a particular account of all monies by the said corporation expended in the preceding three years, specifying the particular purposes to which they have been applied; and if it shall appear, that any monies except for necessary purchases or repairs of any buildings which may belong to the said corporation, applicable solely to the uses in and by this act expressly mentioned and prescribed, or for the payment of the treasurer or secretary thereof, or for other charges incidental to the management of the funds thereof, have been applied by the said corporation to any use other than for the support of indigent members of the said corporation, or of the widows or children of any person having been a member thereof, or for the establishment and support of the school in and by this act contemplated to be erected and maintained for the instruction of the children of the members of the said corporation, he shall direct the attorney general of the State ex officio to file an information against the said corporation in the supreme court of this State, and if upon the traverse the said corporation shall be found guilty and judgment shall pass thereupon, that thenceforth the said corporation shall cease and become null and void, and the estate, real and personal, which it may then possess, shall vest in the people of this State.

And be it further enacted, That this act be and is hereby declared to be a public act; and that the same be construed in all courts and places benignly and favorably for every beneficial purpose therein intended.

Northfield, town of, erected.

CHAP. 22.

AN ACT to divide the town of Providence in the county of
Saratoga.

PASSED the 13th of March, 1801.

Be it enacted, by the People of the State of New York represented in Senate and Assembly, That from and after the first Monday of April next, all that part of the town of Providence in the county of Saratoga, beginning at a place on the west line of said town, six miles from the southwest corner thereof, thence easterly on a strait line parallel with the south line of the said town, to the east bounds thereof, thence northerly along the east line of said town of Providence to the northeast corner thereof, thence westerly along the north bounds of said town to the northwest corner thereof, thence southerly along the west bounds of said town to the place of beginning, shall be and hereby is erected into a separate town by the name of Northfield-and the first town meeting in the said town of Northfield shall be held at the dwelling Providence house of James Goodwin in said town; and that all the remaining part of the said town of Providence shall be and remain a separate town by the name of Providence; and the next annual town meeting in the said town of Providence shall be held at the dwelling house of Samuel S. Barker in said town.

Town officers.

And be it further enacted, That the said towns of Providence and Northfield and the officers by them to be elected shall be entitled to all