CHAP. 343.—An ACT to give authority to the Gloucester Charity
school to sell real estate in Gloucester county.

Approved March 1, 1886.

Whereas, the general assembly, in the year eighteen hundred
and fourteeri, passed an act incorporating the Gloucester Charity
school, the object of which was to hold real and personal estate
for certain purposes therein mentioned; and whereas, the said
Gloucester Charity school now holds and controls a large tract
of real estate, known as the free-school tract of land; and
whereas, the said land cannot be used advantageously in carry-
ing out the purposes originally intended; and whereas, doubt
exists whether said Gloucester Charity school has the authority
to sell said real estate without the intervention df the general
assembly; and whereas, it is right and proper to have the title
to said land undisputed when a sale is made, and the surest and
best mode is to confer the authority on the Gloucester Charity
school, whenever deemed expedient, to call to its aid, in making
a sale, the circuit court of the county of Gloucester; now,
therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
authority is hereby given the Gloucester Charity school, when
a sale is desired of the free-school tract of land, to file a peti-
tion before the circuit court of Gloucester, asking for a sale of
said land; the petition for said sale shall not be filed until and
after notice has been given by public advertisement at five or
more public places in Gloucester county, stating that said peti-
tion will be filed, giving the time and place of filing, for thirty
days before the filing of the same. When the petition is filed,
any two or more tax-payers in Gloucester, shall have the right
to come into the court and enter themselves as parties defend-
ants, and resist the petition: provided, the tax-payers aforesaid
give bond and security to pay all costs for resisting said peti-
tion. The circuit court of Gloucester shall, after hearing the
petition, with answers and depositions, and so forth, decide
whether the land shall-be sold or not; if the court shall decree
a sale, then the order of the court shall state the minimum price
to be taken for said land, and all other points guarded and pro-
tected by said court, as in other judicial sales. The court may
order a sale in whole or in parcels.

2. The court, in passing the title, shall require the president
of the Gloucester Charity school, along with the commissioner
who made the sale, to unite in a deed conveying the said land.

3. This act shall be in force from its passage.