An Act for regulating markets on Sundays, and for preventing the employment of slaves in work or labour on that day.

WHEREAS it is expedient that the long established usage of holding markets in this island on Sundays should be regulated by law, and that the said markets should be prohibited and cease during and after the celebration of divine service in the several parish churches of this island; May it therefore please Your most excellent Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it and it is hereby enacted by the Commander-in-Chief for the time being of Your Majesty’s Islands of St. Christo­pher, Nevis, Anguilla and the Virgin Islands, and the Council and Assembly of this Island of Nevis, and by the authority of the same, that from and after the expiration of one calendar month from the time of passing and publishing this Act, and until the enlarged resources of the slaves population of this island and their improvement in religion and morals, shall render it expedient and practicable wholly to prohibit by law the holding of markets on Sundays within this island, such markets shall be and the same are hereby tolerated to be holden until the hour of eleven in the forenoon of the Lord’s-day.

[Clause 2.] And be it further enacted, that markets tolerated by virtue of this Act shall be concluded and closed at the hour of eleven in the forenoon, and that the ringing of the usual ten o’clock bells at the several parish churches in this island, or of any other bells established or to be established for this purpose by the magistrates or vestries of the several parishes respectively, which they are hereby authorized so to establish, shall be sufficient warning to all persons to prepare to depart from the said markets, and for all marketing to cease, and that if any person whosoever shall publicly show forth or expose to sale, or publicly sell or buy (except as here­inafter provided) after the hour of eleven in the forenoon of the Lord’s-day, any article whatsoever in any of the said markets or elsewhere in the said island, such articles shall be forfeited, and shall or may be seized by any constable or peace officer and shall be taken forthwith before any justice of the peace, who upon view thereof shall dispose of such article, or order the same to be sold by any constable, and shall apply the produce thereof in such manner as he the said justice may in his discretion think fitting: And further, that in case the party who shall offend herein be a white or free person, he shall on a summary conviction by the oath of one or more credible witnesses before such justice, be fined in any sum not exceed­ing fifty shillings, current gold and silver money, or be imprisonment in the com­mon gaol, without bail or mainprize, for any time not exceeding forty-eight hours.

[Clause 3.] And be it further enacted, that from and after the expiration of one calendar month after the passing and publishing of this Act, no shop, store, warehouse or other building or place for the sale of any article whatsoever except as hereinafter expressed, nor any punch-house, grog-shop or place where any kind of strong or spirituous liquor mixed or unmixed with any liquid or thing, shall be sold or reposited for sale, shall be kept open during the Sabbath-day, nor shall any strong or spirituous liquor mixed or unmixed with any liquid or thing, be sold or distributed or in anywise exposed for sale on such day by any person whomsoever: And if any person shall offend herein, such person being a white or free person, shall for each and every offence upon conviction in a summary way, by the oath of one or more credible witnesses before any two or more magistrates, be fined in any sum not less than one pound nor exceeding ten pounds current gold and silver money, to be levied in case of non-payment by warrant under the hands and seals of the said magistrates, and paid over to the treasurer of this island for the public uses thereof; or being a slave, shall for each and every offence, upon being duly convicted thereof as aforesaid before any two or more magistrates, suffer such lawful corporal punish­ment not exceeding thirty-nine lashes, or six days imprisonment in the common gaol, as such magistrates in their discretion shall adjudge and direct: Provided always, that nothing in this Act contained shall extend or be construed, deemed or taken to extend to prevent the keeping open any tavern, hotel, victualling or boarding­house, or the house or shop of any apothecary, druggist or surgeon in the due exercise of their several callings or professions respectively, nor to the preventing of milk, turtle, butcher’s-meat, fresh fish and other such like perishable animal food from being carried or cried about for sale, or exposed for sale in any shop, stall or place on the Lord’s-day, except during the hours appointed and set apart for the celebration of divine service in the parish churches of this island respectively.

[Clause 4.] And be it further enacted, that it shall not be lawful for any person whomsoever to employ any slave in any work or labour during any part of the Lord’s-day, ex­cepting only in such work as is ordinarily and absolutely necessary and indispen­sable, or in such work and labour as may become requisite by reason of any imperative necessity or unavoidable emergency, under the penalty of any sum not exceeding ten pounds nor less than one pound current gold and silver money for each and every offence, which penalty recovered by summary conviction of the offender before any two or more magistrates as hereinbefore provided, and be paid to the treasurer of this island for the public uses thereof: Provided always nevertheless, and be it further enacted, that nothing in this Act contained shall extend or be construed, deemed or taken to extend to prevent the employing of any slave being a watchman, waterman, porter, stock-keeper, messenger or domestic slave, in the usual way of the calling or occupation of such slave on any and every necessary occasion, in such manner as is hereinbefore excepted or provided for in the case of slaves in general.

Dated at St. Christopher, this 10th day of October, in the ninth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Fourth, by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord 1828.

(signed) Wm, Pemberton, Speaker.