Chap. 408.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 923 of the Code of Virginia,
as amended and re-enacted by an act approved February 16, 1892, and by an act
approved March 3, 1898.

Approved December 10, 1903.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
nine hundred and twenty-three of the Code of Virginia, as amended and
re-enacted by an act approved February sixteen, eighteen hundred and
ninety-two, and by an act approved March third, eighteen hundred and
ninety-eight, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 923. Appointment of notaries public; their term and bonds; to be
conservators of the peace; what to vacate their offices; clerks to inform
the governor of vacancies.—The governor shall appoint in and for the
separate counties and cities of the State as many notaries as to him may
seem proper, who shall hold office for the term of four years, and who
shall exercise the powers and functions of conservators of the peace, and
he may appoint the same person to serve for two or more counties and
cities: provided, that notaries in citics and in counties in which cities
or parts thereof are located shall have authority to act as such in each
of said localities, or for one county and city. Every notary shall give
bond in the circuit court of the county or corporation court of the city
for which the said notary is appointed, or before the judge of such court
in vacation, within four months from the date of said notaries’ commis-
sion in a penalty of not less than five hundred dollars, and the clerk of
said court shall immediately forward a certified copy of said bond to the
secretary of the Commonwealth. The removal of a notary from the
county or corporation in which said notary resides when appointed, un-
less said removal be into another county or city for which said notary
may have been also appointed, shall be construed as a vacation of said
office, and the clerk of said county or city shall at once inform the gov-
ernor of the fact, as well as of all deaths of notaries that may occur.

It shall be the duty of the secretary of the Commonwealth when a
commission is ordered by the governor to send the same to the clerk of
the court of the county or city in which the notary public is required to
qualify, to be delivered by him to the notary public after said notary
public has given bond and taken the oath of office, and the clerk of the
court in which this is done shall be required forthwith to report the fact
to the secretary of the Commonwealth, who shall be required to keep a
book stating the names and numbers of notaries public, when appointed,
and when qualified.

2. This act shall be in force on and after the first day of February,
nineteen hundred and four.