enrolled, and length by the city clerk in a book to be kept for that purpose, be examined, previous to which they shall be examined by a joint standing recorded. committee of the city council on ordinances, who shall certify Sept. 16, 1850. on the backs of the originals that they are rightly and truly enrolled. the orders of men to be published. SECT. 3. The ordinances of the city council, and the rules Ordinances and and regulations of the board of aldermen, shall be published board of alderand promulgated by inserting the same two weeks successively in the newspapers published in the city of Boston, wherein are Ibid. printed the laws of the commonwealth for the time being, and in such other of the newspapers published and printed within the city, as the city council may designate; but this and the This provision second section are directory merely, and a failure to comply with to be directory the same shall not affect the validity of any ordinance or of any rules and regulations. merely. Ibid. to the use of &c. SECT. 4. All fines and penalties for the violation of any of Fines to inure the ordinances of the city council, or any of the rules and reg- the city, except, ulations of the board of aldermen, when recovered, shall inure Dec. 28, 1854. to the use of the city, and shall be paid into the city treasury, except in those cases where it may be otherwise provided by the acts of the legislature, or the ordinances of the city. 1 The legislature has, by various acts, transferred a large portion of the powers and duties of the overseers of the poor of Boston which they formerly possessed, to the directors of the house of industry, and by the Act of 1857, 7. Bequests, &c., made by John 11. Corporation authorized to bind Boylston, vested in said corpo ration. 8. Said corporation to have perpet- 9. Shall have a common seal, and 10. out poor persons, &c. 12. Power of surrendering indigent Incorporation of the overseers of the poor. STATUTES. 1. By an act passed April 25, 1772, after reciting in a preamble that many charitably-disposed persons have given and c. 35,1 these powers and duties are transferred to "the board of directors for public institutions," who now perform in Boston most of the duties imposed upon overseers of the poor in the various towns by the General Statutes. The overseers of the poor of Boston, in practice, furnish "out-door relief,” and may send paupers to the house of industry. When received there, they come under the charge of the above-named directors. The overseers of the poor in the town of Boston were regularly incorporated for certain charitable purposes by the legislature in 1772, and it has been judicially held that the provision in the City Charter, relative to overseers of the poor, was a continuance of the corporation so created in 1772, and not a dissolution or suspension of it. Overseers of the Poor of Boston v. Sears, 22 Pick. 122, (1839). The overseers of the poor, in their corporate capacity, continue to possess and exercise all the powers granted and are subject to all the duties enjoined by the several acts of May 25, 1772; 1802, c. 144; 1813, c. 171, which are seen in the text. See House of Industry, and House of Reformation, ante. For the general powers of overseers of the poor, see Paupers, post. p. 433. They also, as trustees, hold invested on various trusts about $130,000. Of this one half is a general fund the income of which is paid to elderly females. That portion of it called the Boylston Education Fund, now amounting to about thirty-two thousand dollars, is accumulating. The object for which it was left is the education of indigent orphans. Hon. Daniel Oliver, 1731; Margaret Blackader, 1755; John Scollay, 1760; Alice Quick, 1761; Anne Wheelright, 1764; Mary Ireland, 1770; Benjamin Pemberton, 1782; Martha Stevens, 1792; John Boylston, 1793; David Jeffries, 1795; Jonathan Mason, 1795; Samuel Dexter, 1812; Driscoll, 1817; Samuel Eliot, 1820; William Breed, 1825; Mary Belknap, 1832, have made bequests to Boston in various amounts for different purposes, - and there is yet another fund steadily increasing, in the charge of the overseers. City Document, 1861, No. 41. 1 See the above named act ante, pp. 367-369, §§ 107-112. and 25, § 1. bequeathed considerable sums of money and other interest and 1772, April 23 estate to the poor of the town of Boston, and their use, and 22 Pick. 122. many other persons were well inclined to make charitable dona- See p. 24, ante. tions to the same good purpose, but the overseers of the poor of the same town not being incorporated, the good intentions of those who had made, and those who inclined to make such charitable donations, had been either wholly frustrated or not carried into full effect it was enacted: That the overseers, for the time being, of the poor of the town of Boston in the county of Suffolk and province of the Massachusetts Bay, be created, made, erected, and incorporated into a body politic by the name of the Overseers of the Poor of the Town of Boston in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, and that they and their successors in said office have perpetual succession by said name. estates given, devised, &c., for the use of the poor, corporation. Ibid. § 2. 2. That all and singular sum and sums of money, interest, Money and and estate, real or personal, of what name or nature soever heretofore given, or at any time hereafter to be given, granted, bequeathed, or devised by any way or means whatsoever to the vested in said poor of the town or to their use, not exceeding the sums and value in this act hereafter mentioned, be and the same hereby is and shall be to all intents and purposes vested in the same overseers, and their said successors in their said corporate capacity; and they are hereby enabled in the same capacity to receive, manage, lease, let, and dispose the same according to their best discretion, to and for the use and benefit of the poor of the said town; provided, always, that the said overseers shall Proviso, that not be able to receive or be capable of having or holding any hold more than moneys or personal estate of any kind or nature whatsoever, at Ibid. any time above and beyond the sum and amount of sixty thousand pounds lawful money of this province, accounting and reckoning the whole moneys and value of all the personal estate, personal securities, and choses in action which they shall own or be vested withal in their corporate capacity together, and that all gifts and bequests of money or personal estate of any kind made to the said corporation, or which by the tenor of this act they might take or be vested with, shall be utterly void they shall not £ 60,000. 1772, April 23 and 25, § 2. Shall have perpetual succession. Ibid. § 3. estate not at all times hereafter when their whole stock in moneys, personal securities, or choses in action and personal estate which the said corporation shall have, own, and be vested with the property of, shall, taken reckoned together, amount to the said sum of sixty thousand pounds. 3. That the said overseers and their successors in said office, by the name aforesaid, have a perpetual succession, by that name, to sue or be impleaded; by its said corporate name to May hold real purchase lands and hold them not exceeding the sum of five hundred pounds, lawful money, by the year, and to manage, lease, bargain, and sell, or otherwise dispose of all or any part thereof, and do all acts as natural persons may, as from time to time the said corporation shall judge best for the benefit, advantage, and use of said poor. exceeding £500 by the year. Shall have a common seal, by-laws, &c. Ibid. § 4. 4. That the said corporation shall have a common seal and and may make power, and said corporation is hereby authorized to make bylaws and private statutes and ordinances, not repugnant to the laws of the land, for the better government of the said corporation and its finances; to choose a treasurer, clerk, and other subordinate officers, as from time to time shall be found necessary, and all or any of them again at pleasure to displace. Instruments made and acts 5. That all instruments which said corporation shall lawfully make by the name aforesaid and sealed with their common seal, and all acts done or matters passed upon by the consent of a major part of the said overseers for the time being, shall bind said corporation and be valid in law. Incorporation of John Boyl ble Donations. 1802, 44, § 1. BOYLSTON'S CHARITABLE DONATIONS. 6. By an act passed February 3, 1803, it was enacted: of the Trustees That Oliver Wendell, William Cooper, Ebenezer Storer, and ston's Charita- William Smith, all of Boston, and John Pitts, of Tyngsborough, in the country of Middlesex, Esquires, and the survivors and survivor of them, together with the overseers of the poor of the town of Boston, for the time being, and their successors, and after the decease of the said Oliver Wendell, William Cooper, Ebenezer Storer, William Smith, and John Pitts, the said overseers of the poor of the town of Boston for the 1802, 44, § 1. time being and their successors forever, are incorporated into a body politic, by the name and title of the Trustees of John Boylston's Charitable Donations for the benefit and support of aged poor persons, and of orphans and deserted children, and by that name and title shall have perpetual succession. made by John corporation. 7. All the bequests,' devises, and donations made and Bequests, &c., granted by John Boylston, late of Bath, in the kingdom of Boylston Great Britain, deceased, for the purposes above mentioned, be vested in said and they hereby are vested in the said corporation, to be held Ibid. § 2. and disposed of by them conformably to the directions of the said will. And the said corporation shall insert among their records a copy of this act, and also of all the clauses of the said last will and testament which have relation to the said two charitable donations for the benefit of aged poor persons, and for the support of orphans and deserted children; and in the management and disposal of the funds granted in said will, the said corporation shall conform to and be governed by the directions therein contained. tion to have to hold real and personal estate. Ibid. § 3. 8. The said corporation shall have a perpetual succession Said corporaby the name and title aforesaid, to sue or be impleaded; to perpetual purchase and hold lands, or other real estate, not exceeding the succession, and value of three thousand dollars, by the year; to hold personal estate not exceeding the value of sixty thousand dollars; and to manage, lease, bargain, and sell or otherwise dispose of, all or any part thereof, subject to the directions of the said will; and to do all acts as natural persons may do, as the said corporation from time to time shall judge best to carry into effect the charitable intentions of the said will; and the real or personal estate which the said corporation are hereby empowered to hold, shall not be considered as part of that which the overseers of the poor of the town of Boston are already empowered by their former act of incorporation to hold; but as altogether distinct and separate from the same. 9. The said corporation shall have a common seal, with shall have a 1 See John Boylston's will, Suffolk Probate Records, vol. 94, p. 17. |