An ACT to amend an Act, intituled, “An Act for establishing a Registry of Negro and other Slaves in the Island of Granada and its Dependencies.”

WHEREAS by an Act of these Islands, intituled, “An Act for establishing a Registry of Negro and other Slaves in the Island of Grenada and its dependencies,” it is among other things enacted, that previously to the receipt by the registrar of any return or returns tendered to him by any person or persons making the same, such person or persons shall make and subscribe a certain form of oath, which oath shall be annexed to each return: And whereas the registrar appointed in pursuance of the said Act, under a misconception of the said Act, did not require the form of oath to be subscribed and annexed to the returns for the town and parish of Saint George, having only administered the oath required to be taken, verbally, to the respective parties, whereby the provisions of the said Act have in some measure been contravened, and doubts are entertained as to the mode and manner in which such returns, and the returns generally, are to be transcribed into the book of record required to be kept by the said Act; for remedy whereof, we, your Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the Governor, Council, and Assembly of these Islands, pray Your Majesty that it may be enacted and ordained; and be it and it is hereby enacted and ordained by the authority of the same, That the registrar of slaves within this government shall and he is hereby required to insert all returns which have been actually sworn to in his book of record, although the form of oath may not have been annexed thereto and subscribed by the party making the same; and that the said registrar shall not insert in the said record the oath attached to, or required to be attached to each return, excepting in the case of the first return for the town of St. George, and the first return of the parish of St. George, and the first return of each and every other parish and district, including the Island of Carriacou and the Grenadines, as a separate and distinct district, as hereinafter directed; and the said registrar shall and he is hereby required and directed to enter all the said returns in classes and districts as aforesaid, as near as may be alphabetically, in the said book of record, in order to exhibit the same as clearly and distinctly as possible.

[Clause 2] And whereas by the said Act it is among other things enacted, That the returns for the Island of Carriacou and the Grenadines should be given in at any time between the first day of May and the thirty-first day of July; and doubts are entertained whether such returns should be recorded in the rotation in which they have been received or otherwise; Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in transcribing the said returns from the Island of Carriacou and the other Grenadines, the registrar shall and he is hereby required to select the same, and insert them in the book of record, after the parish of St. David, and in a distinct and separate department, in the same manner as the other parishes are, any thing thereinbefore contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.

[Clause 3] And whereas the affidavit directed to be attached to the annual return of slaves does not appear to be sufficiently perspicuous; and doubts may arise whether the return or absence of runaway slaves should be inserted in such annual return; Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the twelfth clause of the said recited Act be and is hereby repealed; and that in the place of the oath therein prescribed to be taken and annexed to every such annual return, the following oath shall be substituted and taken before the registrar by every person making and subscribing such return.

“I, A.B. do solemnly Swear, That the contents of the annexed Schedule or Return are true, and that the same contains, to the best of my knowledge and belief, a full, fair and correct account of all the births and deaths, and of the increase and decrease, whether occasioned by purchase, sale, or by the return or absence of any runaway slaves, or in any other manner whatsoever, which have happened or taken place among the slaves belonging to or attached, and usually worked upon the Plantation therein named, or the property of, or in the lawful possession of [blank] (if unattached, or person slaves) since the original registration thereof, or during the preceding year, and of the whole number of slaves now actually belonging to, or attached to, and usually worked upon the said Plantation, and in the possession of the said A.B.”

[Clause 4] And whereas the compelling the inhabitants of the Island of Carriacou and the Grenadines to attend the registrar at his office, in the town of Saint George, has been found to be productive of serious inconveniences; Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in respect to all future returns to be delivered to the registrar as to the increase and decrease of the slave population, it shall not be necessary for the inhabitants of Carriacou, to repair to Saint George for such purpose as aforesaid; but the registrar shall and he is hereby authorized, required, and directed to receive the returns of the inhabitants of Carriacou, and the other Grenadines, at some convenient time and place, to be fixed by himself, and publicly notified by him in the Island of Carriacou, to which Island he shall repair in person, in due time to discharge his duty, as required by this Act.

And whereas the time limited for taking the annual returns required by the said Act, to the thirty-first day of December next, and each and every succeeding year, does not extend beyond the thirty-first day of January in each and every succeeding year; and the person discharge of the duty of the registrar in the Island of Carriacou, will require that the same should be enlarged; Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the time for taking the return for the Island of Carriacou, be extended from the thirty-first day of January to the twenty-eighth day of February in each and every year, and that due notice of this extension be given by the said registrar in the Saint George’s gazette.

And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That on the completion and closing of the said record, and of each and every annual record of the increase and decrease, and previously to making the affidavit directed to be by him taken before the Governor and Commander in chief, in respect to the accuracy of the said record, the registrar shall and he is hereby required to make out and insert in the said record, a numerical abstract of the returns of each district, and shall from such separate abstracts make out one general abstract or addition of the separate abstracts, exhibiting in one line and at one view, the entire state of the slave population, and of the increase and decrease in the same during the preceding year, and shall insert such general abstract and separate abstracts in the said book of record

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That this Act shall be deemed and taken to be a Public Act, and shall be judicially taken notice of as such, by all judges and other persons, without specially pleading the same.