Debtors Imprisonment Act 1758
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1758 c. 28 |
(32 Geo. 2) C A P. XXVIII.
'WH E R E A S many Persons suffer by the Oppression of inferior Officers in the Execution of Processfor Debt, and the Exaction of Gaolers to whom such Debtors are committed: For Remedy whereof, it may be reasonable not only to inforce the Execution of the Laws now in Being against such Oppressions and Exactions, more especially several Clauses in a Statute made at a Parliament held in the twenty-second and twenty-third Years of the Reign of King Charles the Second (intituled,An Act for the Relief and Release of poor distressed Prisoners for Debt ) but likewise to make some further Provisions for the Ease and Relief of Debtors who shall be willing to satisfy their Creditors to the utmost of their Power;' Be it therefore enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That no Sheriff, Under Sheriff Bailiff, Serjeant at Mace, or other Officer or Minister whatsoever, shall at any Time or Times hereafter convey or carry, or cause to be conveyed or carried any Person or Persons by him or them arrested, or being in his or their Custody by virtue or colour of any Action, Writ, Process or Attachment, to any Tavern, Ale-house, or other Publick Victualling or Drinking House, or to the Private House of any such Officer or Minister, or of any Tenant or Relation of his, without the free and voluntary Consent of the Person or Person so arrested or in Custody; nor charge any such Personor Persons with any Sum of Money for any Wine, Beer, Ale, Victuals, Tobacco, or any other Liquor or Things whatsoever, save what he, she or they shall call for of his, her or their own free Accord; nor shall cause or procure him, her or them, to call or pay for any such Liquor or Things, except what he, she or they shall particularly and freely ask for; nor shall demand, take or receive, or cause to be demanded, taken or received, directly or indirectly, any other or greater Sum or Sums of Money than is or shall be by Law allowed to be taken or demanded for any Arrest or Taking, or for detaining, or waiting till the Person or Persons so arrested or in Custody shall have given an Appearance or Bail, as the Case shall require, or agreed with the Person or Persons at whose Suit or Prosecution he, she or they shall be taken or arrested, or until he, she or they shall be sent to the proper Gaol belonging to the County, Riding, Division, City, Town or Place where such Arrest or Taking shall be; nor shall exact or take any Reward, Gratuity or Money for keeping the Person or Persons so arrested or in Custody out of Gaol or Prison; nor shall carry any such Person to any Gaol or Prison within four and twenty Hours from the Time of such Arrest, unless such Person or Persons so arrested shall refuse to be carried to some safe and convenient Dwelling House of his, her or their own Nomination or Appointment, within a City, Borough, Corporation, or Market Town, in case such Person or Persons shall be there arrested; or within three Miles from the Place where such Arrest shall be made, if the same shall be made out of any City, Borough, Corporation, or Market Town, so as such Dwelling House be not the House of the Person arrested, and be within the County, Riding, Division or Liberty, in which the Person under Arrest was arrested; and then and in any such Case it shall be lawful to and for any such Sheriff, or other Officer or Minister, to convey or carry the Person or Persons so arrested, and refusing to be carried to such safe and convenient Dwelling House as aforesaid, to such Gaol or Prison as he, she or they may be sent to, by virtue of the Action, Writ or Process against him, her or them.
II Nor may Officer take for the Lodging, Diet, and other Expences of such Prisoner, more than shall be allowed in such Cases, by an Order of the Justices in their General or Quarter-Sessions, which Order they are required to make with all Expedition;
II. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That no Sheriff, Under Sheriff, Bailiff, Serjeant at Mace, or other Officer or Person, shall at any Time or Times hereafter, take or receive any other or greater Sum or Sums for one or more Nights Lodging, or for a Day's Diet, or other Expences of any Person or Persons under Arrest, on any Writ, Action, Attachment or Process, other than what shall be allowed as reasonable in such Cases by some Order or Orders already made, or which shall hereafter be made by the Justices of the Peace at some General or Quarter-Sessions which shall be held for the County, Riding, Division, City, Town or Place where such Arrest or Taking shall be, who are hereby authorised and required, with all convenient Expedition, to make some Standing Order or Orders for ascertaining such Charges and Expences within their respective Counties, Ridings, Divisions, Cities, Towns and Jurisdictions, if the same hath or have not already been there made; and if any such Order or Orders hath or have been there already made, such Justices for the Time being, at their respective General or Quarter-Sessions, are hereby authorised and required to vary or alter the same, from time to time, as they shall see Occasion; and also are hereby required to cause a Copy of every such Order, and of every Variation or Alteration thereof, signed by the Clerk of the Peace of every such County, Riding, Division, City, Town or Place respectively, to be put and kept up in some conspicuous Place in the Sessions House, or some other proper Place, of every such respective County, Riding, Division, City, Town or Place as such Justices shall order, so as the same may be there seen and examined as Occasion may require.
III Sheriffs and the Secondaries of the Compters, to deliver printed Copies of these Clauses to Bailiffs and other Officers imployed in the Execution of Writs, &c.
III. And to the Intent that no Person may suffer by reason of his Ignorance of the Provisions made by this Act, Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That and every Sheriff, Under Sheriff, and Bailiff of any Liberty, and also the respective Secondaries and Clerk Sitters in the respective Compters inLondon , and all other Persons intrusted with the Execution of Process, or who shall enter any Actions, or make any Warrant or Warrants, or any Writ or Process, in order to have the same executed, shall deliver a printed Copy of the several Clauses contained in this Act relating to Bailiffs, Serjeants, and other Officers and Persons who shall be imployed under them respectively to execute any Writ, Process or Attachment, or who shall arrest any Person on any Action which shall be entered, or otherwise, within their respective Sheriffwicks or Jurisdictions, to every such Bailiff, Serjeant, Officer, and other Person, and shall make it Part of the Conditionof every Security or Bond which shall be given or made to any such Sheriff or Under Sheriff, or Bailiff of any Liberty, by any Bailiff, Serjeant at Mace, or other Officer or Person, who shall be imployed or intrusted to execute any such Writ or Process as aforesaid under him, them, or any of them, that every such Bailiff, Serjeant at Mace, or Officer, and other Person respectively, shall and will shew and deliver a Copy of the said Clauses to every Person he shall arrest by virtue of any Process, Action, Writ or Attachment, or under any Warrant made out thereon, and carry or go with to any Publick or other House where any Liquorshall be sold; and also shall and will permit every such Person who shall be so arrested, or any Friend of him or her, to read over the same Clauses, before any Liquor, Meat or Victuals shall be at any such Publick or other House called for, or brought to any such Person who shall be so under Arrest there; and in case any Bailiff, Serjeantat Mace, or other Officer or Person, shall in any respect offend in the Premisses, every such Offence, besides the Breach of the Condition of every such Security Bond, shall be accounted and deemed a Misdemeanor in the Execution of the Process or Action on which any such Person was arrested, and shall be punishable as such by virtue of this Act.
IV Sheriffs and Gaolers to allow Debtors in Custody to send for, or have brought to them, Victuals and Beer from what Place they shall think fit;
IV. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That every Sheriff, Under Sheriff, Bailiff of any Liberty. Gaoler and Keeper of any Prison or Gaol, and other Person and Persons, to whose Custody or Keeping any one hath been, or hereafter shall be arrested, taken, committed or charged in Execution, by virtue of any Writ, Process or Action, or Attachment, shall at all Times hereafter permit and suffer every such Person and Persons, during his, her and their respective Continuance under Arrest or in Custody, or in Execution for any Debt, Damages, Costs, or Contempt, at his, her and their free Will and Pleasure, to send for, or have brought to him, her or them, at...
To continue reading
Request your trial