Crown Debtors Act 1785

WHEREAS by an Act made in the thirteenth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (intituled An Act to make the lands, tenements, goods and chattels of tellers, receivers, etcetera, liable to the payment of their debts), for the better security of the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors, against such as should have the receipt and charge of the money and treasure of her Highness, her heirs and successors, it was declared and enacted, that all lands, tenements, profits, commodities, and hereditaments which certain officers of the crown, farmers and persons therein named, particularly the treasurer or receiver of any sums of money impressed or otherwise for the use of the Queen's Majesty, her heirs or successors, then had or at any time thereafter should have within the time he or they or any of them should remain accountable, should, for payment and satisfaction unto the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors, of his or their arrearages at any time thereafter to be lawfully according to the laws of the realm adjudged and determined upon his or their account (all his due and reasonable petitions being allowed), be liable to the payment thereof and be put in execution for payment of such arrearages or debts in like and in as large and beneficial a manner as if the person had the day he became officer or accountant stood bound by writing obligatory, having the effect of a statute of the staple, to her Majesty, her heirs or successors; and reciting, that forasmuch as many times it might come to pass that the Queen's Highness, her heirs or successors, might not be conveniently satisfied of the debt to be determined or due upon any account as aforesaid by way of extent, for that the yearly value of the lands extended would not satisfy her Highness, her heirs or successors, within the compass of many years, so as that great loss might ensue to her Highness, her heirs or successors, for remedy thereof it was enacted, that if any treasurer or other person accountant before mentioned which should from and after the feast of Saint Michael then next ensuing receive or be chargeable with any money or treasure of the Queen, her heirs or successors, and should upon the determining of his or their account or by reason of any farm as aforesaid be found in arrearages, and should not within six months next after his or their accounts finished or debt known pay all such sums of money as he or they should upon determination of his or their account or upon his or their debt known, it should be lawful to the Queen's Highness, her heirs and successors, at any time and from time to time, after the said six months ended, to make sale by her or their letters under the great seal of England of so much of the lands, tenements and hereditaments of every such accountant or debtor so being found in arrearages or debt as might suffice the Queen, her heirs or successors, for satisfaction, until her Majesty, her heirs or successors, should be by such sale fully satisfied and paid off such arrearages and debt; and that if any overplus should be received upon such sale, then the same should be paid to the accountant or farmer or his heirs by the officer that should receive the same money upon any of the said sales, without further warrant in that behalf: And whereas by an Act made in the twenty-seventh year of the same Queen, after reciting certain doubts upon the said Act of the thirteenth year of her reign, it was declared and enacted, that the said recited Act in every part thereof touching the power thereby given to her Highness, her heirs and successors, to make sale of any of the lands, tenements or hereditaments by the same Act limited to be sold should be expounded and intended as well in case where the sale is to be made after the death of such accountant or debtor as where it is to be made in his or their life-time, and also as well in case where the account is made or the debt known within eight years after the death of such accountant or debtor as where the same account is made or the debt known in the life-time of the same accountant or debtor; but it was provided that after the death of such accountant or debtor, and before any the lands, tenements and hereditaments descended unto the heir of such accountant or debtor as heir should be sold, a scire facias should be awarded out of her Majesty's Court of Exchequer, unto the sheriff of the county where any such lands lie, to garnish the same heir to show cause why the same lands, tenements and hereditaments should not be put to sale for satisfaction of the same debts or farms in the said Act mentioned, according to the tenor thereof; whereupon if the heir should not within a convenient time, upon a garnishment or two nichils returned, show and prove unto the said court that the exec