Persons forging, any receipt or certificate for certain Annuities or Exchequer Bills, declared guilty of felony, without benefit of clergy. or shall alter any Number, Figure, or Word, in any such Certificate or Debenture, or in any Assignment thereof or Indorsement thereon, or utter or publish as true any such false, forged, counterfeited or altered Certificate or Certificates, Debenture or Debentures, or Assignment or Assignments thereof, or Indorsement or Indorsements thereon, with intent to defraud his Majesty, or the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, or any Body Politick or Corporate, or any person or persons whomsoever, every such person or persons so forging or counterfeiting, or causing or procuring to be forged or counterfeited, or willingly acting or assisting in the forging or counterfeiting, or altering, uttering or publishing, as aforesaid, being thereof convicted in due form of Law, shall be adjudged guilty of Felony, and shall suffer Death as a Felon, without Benefit of Clergy. By the Statute 58 G. 3. c. 23. " for raising a Sum of Money &c. or uttering by the Transfer of certain Annuities into other Annuities, and for granting Annuities to discharge certain Exchequer Bills," it is enacted (s. 38.), that if any person or persons shall forge or counterfeit, or cause or procure to be forged or counterfeited, or shall willingly act or assist in the forging or counterfeiting, any Receipt or Receipts, or Certificate or Certificates, for the whole or any part or parts of the said Money, Annuities, or Exchequer Bills, subscribed under the provisions of this Act, either with or without the Name or Names of any person or persons being inserted therein, as the Subscriber or Subscribers thereto, or Transferrer or Transferrers, or Payer or Payers thereof, or of any part or parts thereof, or any Certificate or Certificates directed to be made out by this Act, or any Assignment thereof or Indorsement thereon; or shall alter any Number, Figure, or Word therein respectively, or utter or publish as true any such false, forged, counterfeited, or altered Receipt or Receipts, or Certificate or Certificates, or Assignment or Assignments thereof, or Indorsement or Indorsements thereon, with intent to defraud his Majesty, or the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, or any Body Politick or Corporate, or any person or persons whatsoever; every such person or persons so forging or counterfeiting, or causing or procuring to be forged or counterfeited, or willingly acting or assisting in the forging or counterfeiting, or altering, uttering, or publishing as aforesaid, being thereof convicted in due form of Law, shall be adjudged guilty of Felony, and shall suffer Death as a Felon, without Benefit of Clergy. VI. vii. Forging any Share, Chance, or Agreement, relating to By the Statute 47 G. 3. st. 2. c. 9. s. 39. and 49 G. 3. c. 94. VI. viii. Making, signing, or giving, any false Certificate, Bill of Parcels, &c. relating to the Purchase of Naval, Ordnance, or Victualling Stores. Persons counterfeiting any share, chance or agreement of or for the Lottery, shall be guilty of felony. &c. or giving any false certifi. cate, bill of parcels, &c. relating to the purchase of King's stores, or uttering same, shall forfeit £200, and be By s. 26. of the Statute 39, 40 G. 3. c. 89. (2) ❝ for prevent- Persons making, ing the Embezzlement of His Majesty's Naval, Ordnance, or Victualling Stores," it is enacted, that if any person or persons shall make, sign, or give any false. Certificate, Bill of Parcels, or other Instrument, purporting the identity or the sale or disposal of any goods or stores, as goods or stores so purchased of the said Commissioners as aforesaid; or if any person or persons corporally shall utter or publish any such false Certificate, Bill of Parcels, punished. or other Instrument, purporting as aforesaid, knowing the same to be false; every such offender, upon conviction thereof in due form of Law, shall forfeit the sum of two hundred pounds, and be further corporally punished as by this Act is directed with respect to persons having in their possession or concealing his Majesty's Warlike, Naval, or Ordnance Stores, contrary to the said Act (1) The wording of these clauses is in both the Acts verbatim the same. (2) See this Act at length under title LARCENY and ROBBERY, XIV. Penalty of £50 for forging certain papers made use of under the Vagrant Act. Persons forging, use of in transacting the redemption and sale of the Land clergy. [9, 10 W. 3. c. 41.]; one moiety of which penalty shall be to his VI. ix. Forging any Certificate, Receipt, or Note, under the In case any such petty Constable or other Officer or Governor or Master of any House of Correction, shall counterfeit any such Certificate (1), Receipt (2), or Note (1), or make, or knowingly permit to be made, any alteration in any such Certificate, Receipt, or Note, he shall forfeit the sum of fifty pounds, to be levied by distress and sale of the offender's goods, by warrant or order of the Justices of the Peace where such offence shall be committed, at their General or Quarter Sessions, one moiety to the party first making information against any such offender, and the other to the Treasurer of the County or place, to be applied by him as part of the public stock, returning the overplus (if any) to the defendant on demand. 17 G. 2. c. 5. s. 18. VI. x. Forging Instruments used in transacting the Redemption and Sale of the Land Tax. The Statute 42 G. 3. c. 116., which consolidates the provi&c. or uttering sions of all former Acts relating to the Redemption and Sale of certain specified instruments made the Land Tax, enacts (s. 194.), that if any person shall forge, counterfeit, or alter, or cause or procure to be forged, counterfeited, or altered, or knowingly or wilfully act or assist in the Tax, ousted of forging, counterfeiting, or altering, any Contract or Contracts for the Redemption or Sale of any Land Tax, or any Assignment or Assignments of any such Land Tax, or of any such Contract or Contracts, or of any portion of Land Tax therein comprized, or any Certificate or Certificates of the Commissioners of Land Tax, or of Supply, or of any Chief Magistrate authorized by this Act to make out such Certificate or Certificates, or of the Surveyor General of the Land Revenue of the Crown, or of (1) By the Justice making a Vagrant Pass, who shall deliver to the Constable, &c. conveying such Vagrant, such a Note or Certificate, ascertaining how such Vagrants are to be conveyed. See s. 10. of the Act. (2) For the Reward given by the Act to the Apprehenders of Vagrants, see s. 5. of the Act. the Duchy of Cornwall, or any Certificate or Certificates, Receipt or Receipts of the Cashier or Cashiers of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, or any Certificate or Certificates, or attested Copy of any Certificate or Certificates, directed by this Act to be made out by the proper Officer; or shall wilfully deliver or produce to any person or persons acting under the authority of this Act, or shall utter any such forged, counterfeited, or altered Contract or Contracts, Assignment or Assignments, Certificate or Certificates, Receipt or Receipts, knowing the same to be forged, counterfeited, or altered, with intent to defraud his Majesty, his Heirs or Successors, or any Body or Bodies Politic or Corporate, or Company, or other person or persons whomsover, then and in every such case all and every person or persons so offending, and being lawfully convicted thereof, shall be adjudged guilty of Felony, and shall suffer Death as in cases of felony, without benefit of Clergy. The Statute 52 G. 3. c. 143. (1) declares and enacts (by s. 6.), that if any person shall, after the passing of this Act, forge, counterfeit, or alter, or cause or procure to be forged, counterfeited, or altered, or knowingly or wilfully act or assist in the forging, counterfeiting, or altering, any Contract, Assignment, Certificate, Receipt, or attested Copy of any Certificate made out, or purporting to be made out by any person or persons authorized to make out the same by any Act of Parliament, touching the Redemption or Sale of the Land Tax, or of any part thereof; or if any person shall wilfully utter any such forged, counterfeited, or altered Contract, Assignment, Certificate, Receipt, or attested Copy of Certificate, knowing the same to be forged, counterfeited, or altered, with intent to defraud His Majesty, his Heirs or Successors, or any Body or Bodies Politick or Corporate, or other person or persons; every person so offending, and being thereof convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of Felony, and shall suffer Death as a felon, without benefit of Clergy. (1) This Act does not in any way notice the former one of 42 G. 3, on the same subject. The penalty for forging or pub lishing any false deed or writing, whereby the freehold of another shall be molested. VII. Forgeries relating to private Papers, Securities, and Documents. i. Forging Deeds, Charters, Writings, sealed Court Rolls, or Wills. Reciting that the wicked, pernicious, and dangerous practice of making, forging, and publishing false and untrue Charters, Evidences, Deeds, and Writings, had much increased, by reason that the punishment then existing was so small, enacts, that if any person of their own head and imagination, or by false conspiracy and fraud with others, shall wittingly, subtilly, and falsely forge or make, or subtilly cause or wittingly assent to be forged or made, any false Deed (1), Charter, or Writing sealed, Court-Roll, or the Will (1) of any person in writing, to the intent that the state of freehold or inheritance of any person of, in, or to any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, freehold or copyhold, or the right, title, or interest of any person of, in, or to the same or any of them, shall or may be molested, troubled, defeated, recovered, or charged; or shall pronounce, publish, or shew forth in evidence any such false and forged Deed (1), Charter, Writing, Court-Roll, or Will (1) Dyer, 288. 302. as true, knowing the same to be false and forged, to the intent above remembred; and shall be thereof convicted, either upon action of Forger of false Deeds, to be founded upon this Statute, at the suit of the party grieved, or otherwise according to the order and due course of the Laws of this Realm, shall pay unto the party grieved his double costs and damages, to be found or assessed in that Court where such conviction shall be, and also shall be set upon the Pillory (2), in some open Market town, or other open place, and there to have both his ears cut off, and also his nostrils to be slit and cut, and seared with a hot iron, so as they may remain for a perpetual note or mark of his falsehood, and shall forfeit the whole issues and profits of his lands and tenements during his life, and also shall suffer and have perpetual imprisonment during his life; such damages and costs to be recovered at the suit of the party grieved, to be first levied of the goods and chattels of the offender, and of the profits of such lands, &c. 5 Eliz. c. 14. s. 2. 322. 3 Inst. 103.169. [ Hale, P. C. 682. The penalty of forging any deed If any person, upon his own head or imagination, or by false conspiration or fraud had with any other, shall wittingly, subtilly, and falsely forge or make, or wittingly, subtilly, and term for years, falsely cause or assent to be made and forged, false Charter, or writing, whereby any or annuity, may be claimed; any (2) This part of the punishment is now repealed. See title PILLORY. |