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How casks shall be made in which butter or rendered hog’s lard shall be exposed for sale.
Butter not to be weighed or branded, except in casks made as hereby directed.
No person shall buy or sell empty butter casks until they are weighed and branded.
Allowances to be made on weighing casks.
Penalty for buying or selling casks not weighed or branded.
Casks of butter brought to be weighed, which are not branded as directed, shall be stripped.
Weigh-masters may use additional brands.
Coopers names and residence on casks, penalties as herein.
Penalties on weigh-masters for branding casks not made as directed, or for branding falsely.
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X. And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no person or persons shall sell or expose to sale any cask or casks within said city or liberties for packing of butter, nor any rendered hog’s lard for sale, or shall make up or pack any butter or rendered hog’s lard in any cask or casks to be exposed to sale in said city or liberties, unless such cask or casks be made of good seasoned oak, ash, sycamore, or beech, whereof no part to be bog timber, and shall be made tight, so that they shall hold pickle, with head and bottom equally dooled and set to the cross, with twelve good sufficient hoops on each cask, all well twigged with good fresh ozier twiggs, and that every person so selling or exposing to sale any cask or casks for packing of butter or rendered hog’s lard within said city and liberties, made otherwise than as herein directed, or not being of the weight herein after-required, or not having the staves, head, and bottom thereof of the thickness herein after required, being thereof convicted before the mayor of said city, on a summary hearing by the oath or oaths of one or more credible witness or witnesses, (which oath or oaths the said mayor is hereby empowered and required to administer;) or upon the confession of such offender before the said mayor, shall, for every such cask, forfeit the sum of five shillings, to be levied by distress and sale of the offender’s goods and chattels, by warrant under the hand and seal of the said mayor, (which, warrant the said mayor is hereby empowered and required to issue;) and in case such offender shall not have sufficient goods and chattels to satisfy such penalty, then such offender, by warrant under the hand and seal of said mayor, (which warrant he is hereby empowered and required to issue) shall be committed to the gaol of said city, there to remain, without bail or mainprize, for a space of time not exceeding one month, nor less than one week, at the discretion of said mayor; and every person making up or packing any butter or rendered hog’s lard, to be exposed to sale within said city or liberties, in any cask or casks made otherwise than as herein directed, or not being of the weight herein after required, or not having the staves, head and bottom thereof of the thickness herein after required, being thereof convicted by the oath or oaths of one or more credible witness or witnesses before the said mayor (which oath the mayor is hereby empowered and required to administer,) or upon confession of such offender before the said mayor, shall forfeit the sum of ten shillings tor every hundred and twelve pounds weight of butter or rendered hog’s lard, and so in proportion for every less quantity which shall be in such cask or casks, to be recovered by distress and sale of the offender’s goods and chattels, by warrant under the hand and seal of the said mayor (which warrant said mayor is hereby empowered and required to issue) and in case such offender shall not have goods and chattels sufficient to satisfy such penalty, then such offender shall, by warrant under the hand and seal of said mayor, (which warrant he is hereby empowered and required to issue) be committed to the gaol of said city, there to remain without ball or mainprize for a space of time not exceeding one month, nor less than one week, at the discretion of the said mayor; and that the weigh-master or weigh-masters of said city, for the time being, his or their deputy or deputies, shall not weigh or brand such butter until the same shall be made up in casks made according to the directions of this act, and no person shall buy or sell, or expose to sale, any empty cask or casks for packing of butter or rendered hog’s lard within said city or liberties, before such cask or casks shall be weighed and branded by the said weigh-master or weigh-masters, his or their deputy or deputies, which said weigh-master or weigh-masters, his or their deputy or deputies, shall be, and is, and are hereby empowered and required to weigh all such empty casks, and to allow, on account of soakage, two pounds more on each cask, which shall contain fifty-six pounds weight of neat butter or rendered hog’s lard, and four pounds for every cask which shall contain one hundred and twelve pounds of neat butter or rendered hog’s lard, and so in proportion for every greater or less size, the weight of which empty cask, with the allowance of soakage aforesaid, the said weigh-master or weigh-masters, his or their deputy or deputies, is, and are hereby required to brand on the side and bottom of every such empty cask or casks, in figures, and not in letters; and in case any person shall buy, sell, or expose to sale within said city or liberties, any empty cask or casks, not weighed and branded as aforesaid, every such person being thereof convicted before the said mayor, by the oath or oaths of one or more credible witness or witnesses (which oath or oaths the said mayor is hereby empowered and required to administer,) or upon the confession of such offender, shall forfeit the sum of ten shillings for every cask so bought, sold, or exposed to sale as aforesaid, to be levied by distress and sale of the offender’s goods and chattels, by warrant under the hand and seal of said mayor, (which warrant the said mayor is hereby empowered and required to issue,) and in case such offender shall not have goods and chattels sufficient to satisfy such penalty, then such offender shall, by warrant under the hand and seal of said mayor, (which warrant the said mayor is hereby empowered and required to issue) be committed to the gaol of said city, there to remain without bail or mainprize for a space of time not exceeding one month, nor less than one week, at the discretion of the said mayor; and whenever any cask or casks of butter shall be brought to any of the said weigh-masters of said city, for the purpose of being weighed, which shall not have the tare branded and marked upon the side and bottom of such cask or casks as aforesaid, by the said weigh-master or weigh-masters, his or their deputy or deputies, that then it shall be lawful for the said weigh-master or weigh-masters, his or their deputy or deputies, and he and they is and are hereby required to cause such cask or casks to be stripped, and shall weigh and brand the same in like manner as if such cask or casks had been brought empty to such weigh-house, but they shall not give any allowance for soakage on any such cask; and it shall be lawful for said weigh-master or weigh-masters, his or their deputy or deputies, to use any other brand or mark in addition to the above, which the said weigh-master or weigh-masters shall think least liable to be counterfeited, and all empty cask or casks, or cask or casks full of butter, which shall be brought to any of the weigh-houses of said city to be weighed and branded, shall have the name of the cooper who made such cask or casks, and of his residence, branded in a legible manner on some conspicuous part of it or them; and in case any empty cask or casks, or cask or casks full of butter, shall be brought to any of the said weigh-houses to be weighed and branded as aforesaid, not having the name of the cooper and of his residence branded on it or them, in manner aforesaid, the said weigh-master or weigh-masters, his or their deputy or deputies, is, and are hereby required and empowered to seize and carry such empty cask or casks, or such cask or casks full of butter before the said mayor, who is hereby empowered and required to enquire into the same; and if such cask or casks shall, upon examination, inspection, or due proof, appear not to be branded with the name of said cooper and of his residence as aforesaid, he shall adjudge such empty cask or casks to be forfeited, and the person to whom such cask or casks full of butter shall belong shall forfeit the sum of ten shillings for every hundred weight of butter which such cask or casks shall contain, and the said mayor is hereby empowered and required to detain such cask or casks full of butter, until such penalty shall be satisfied; and if such penalty shall not be satisfied within fourteen days, the said mayor is hereby empowered and required to cause such cask or casks of butter to be sold by public auction, and shall, out of the money for which the same shall be sold, deduct such penalty, and the reasonable expences of such auction, such penalty to be disposed of as the other penalties to be levied under this act are hereby ordered, and shall pay the overplus to the owner of such cask or casks of butter: and in case the said weigh-master or weigh-masters, his or their deputy or deputies, shall weigh and brand any cask or casks not made as herein, or not being of the weight herein after directed, or not having the staves, bottom, and head thereof of the thickness herein after required, or not branded with the name of the cooper and his residence, as herein required, or shall mark or brand any cask falsely as containing more or less than the true weight, such weigh-master or weigh-masters, his or their deputy or deputies, being thereof convicted before the mayor of the said city, on the oath or oaths of one or more credible witness or witnesses, (which oath or oaths the said mayor is hereby empowered and required to administer,) shall, for every such cask not made or branded as herein is directed, or not being of the weight herein after prescribed, or not having the staves, bottom, and head thereof of the thickness herein after required, so weighed and branded by him or them, forfeit the sum of five, shillings; and for every cask so marked or branded falsely, the sum of ten shillings, to be levied by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of such offender or offenders, by warrant under the hand and seal of said mayor, (which warrant the said mayor is hereby empowered and required to issue.)
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