USA > Maryland > A compilation containing the constitution and canons of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of Maryland; > Part 13
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VIII. And be it enacted, That all and every the said corporation or trustees established or to be established in virtue of this act, and their suc- cessors, shall be capable in law to purchase and hold in fee-simple, a quantity of land, not exceeding two acres for the use of any one church, society or congregation, by gift or grant of any person or persons or bodies politic, capable in law to make the same, provided such gift or grant be made by indenture, duly executed and recorded agreeably to law, and in no other manner whatever; and also that every the said body corporate, and their successors, or a majority of them, severally, by their respective names, may take and receive any sum or sums of money, any kind, manner, or portion, of goods and chattels that shall be sold or given to them as aforesaid by any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate, capable in law to make a gift or sale thereof, and employ the same for the benefit and use of the particular church, society or congregation whereunto they respectively belong as a body politic or corporate ; provided, that all and every gift, grant, bargain, sale, or deed of transfer, made by any person or persons, and not intended to take effect and vest in any religious body or corpora- tion during the life of the giver, grantor or seller, but to become their right and property after his, her, or their decease, shall be utterly null, void, and of no effect ; and provided also, that the clear yearly value of the estates, rents annuities, or other hereditaments of any church, society or congregation thus incorporated shall not amount to more than the clear yearly value of two thousand dollars, and all gifts, grants, sales and trans- fers to any the said corporations, or their successors, after the clear yearly value of their estate shall amount to two thousand dollars, and all bargains and purchases to be made by any of them which may increase the yearly
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value of the said estates above and beyond the standard here fixed, shall be utterly null, void, and of no effect.1
IX. And be it enacted, That the limitations in point of annual value afore- said, shall not be understood to affect the estate, property, interest, or in- heritance, or the income arising therefrom, which any Christian church, congregation, or society, may be in possession of at the time of passing this act.
X. And whereas, it is necessary for the greater effect of the preaching of the Gospel, that men should be permitted to employ, and sit under the teachings of, those whom they find or esteem most capable of instructing them, and enforcing the precepts of religious truth, in whose character and faithfulness they have most confidence : therefore, Be it enacted, That where any number of persons, belonging to any church or congregation sufficient to build a church or house of worship, and to maintain a minister, shall choose to separate from the church or congregation of which they have hitherto been a part, and to erect a house of worship, and to employ a minister for themselves, it shall be lawful for them so to do, and they shall, by their respective name or style, be entitled to all the benefits of this act as aforesaid, anything in the act for the establishment of vestries for each parish in this State to the contrary notwithstanding, provided only, that all arrears, debts, and engagements contracted, due, or becoming due, while members of the former society, shall be punctually and faithfully discharged.
XI. And be it enacted, That so much of the act for the establishment of vestries for each parish in this State as confers the powers of civil officers of the peace upon churchwardens, be, and the same are hereby, declared null and void.
XII. And be it enacted, That this act shall not repeal any part of the act for the establishment of vestries for each parish in this State, except so far as the same is inconsistent with the tenth and eleventh sections of this act.
XIII. And be it enacted, That nothing herein contained shall be construed, adjudged or taken, to abridge or affect the rights of conscience or private judgment, or in the least to alter or change the religious constitution or government of any church, congregation or society, so far as respects, or in any wise concerns, doctrine, discipline or worship.
1815-CHAPTER 222.
A supplement to the Act entitled an Act to incorporate certain persons in every Christian Church or Congregation in this State.
SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That every Christian church, or society, or congregation, that is now, or shall hereafter be, incorporated in virtue of the act entitled an act to incorporate certain persons in every Christian church or congregation in this State, passed at November session, eighteen hundred and two, to which this is a supple- ment, and their successors, shall and may have perpetual succession, and shall and may at all times hereafter be persons able and capable in law to purchase, take, and hold to them and their successors, in fee, or for any less estate or estates, any lands, tenements, hereditaments, rents, or annui- ties within this State, by the gift, bargain, sale, or devise of any person or persons, bodies politic, and corporate, capable of making the same, and such lands, tenements, or hereditaments, to rent or lease in such a manner as they may judge most conducive to the interest of their respective churches, societies, and congregations, and also to take and receive any sum or sums of money, and any kind of goods and chattels which may or shall be given, sold, or bequeathed unto them by any person or persons,
1. See Act 1815, c. 222.
116 LAWS OF MARYLAND ON RELIGIOUS MATTERS. :
bodies politic or corporate, capable to make a gift, sale, or bequest "thereof, and to apply the same for the use of their respective churches, " societies, or congregation, as effectually as the same could be applied by "the Vestry of the Protestant Episcopal Church of this State, to their re- spective Parishes, in virtue of the act passed at November session, seven- teen hundred and ninety-eight, chapter twenty-four: Provided, That the y'clear yearly value of the estate of any church, society, or congregation, -(exclusive of the rents of pews, collections in churches, funeral charges, and ¿the like, ) shall not exceed the clear yearly value allowed to any Vestry of (" the Protestant Episcopal Church of this State, in virtue of the act of seven- trteen hundred and ninety-eight, chapter twenty-four, aforesaid.
! ! 12.99 And be it enacted, That so much of the original act to which this is a supplement, as is repugnant to, or inconsistent with this act, be, and the "sa'me is' hereby, repealed.
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1846-CHAPTER 323.
An Act to authorize Incorporations in certain cases.
2 SEC 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That from and after the passage of this act, the power and authority is hereby granted to any individuals, other than free negroes and mulattoes, in any city or county in this State, under any name by them assumed, to associate for " the purpose of establishing lyceums, libraries, masonic or other lodges, fire 'companies, associations for literary, dramatic, moral, social, charitable, and religious purposes, or connected with the promotion of arts and sciences; and being so associated, shall, on complying with the provisions of this act, -be considered a body politic and corporate ; may choose a president and 'other officers ; may enact by-laws for the regulation of the affairs of such corporation n'ot inconsistent with the laws of this State, and compel due observance thereof by suitable penalties ; may sue and be sued, answer and be answered, in any court of law or equity, and do all acts necessary and proper for the well ordering of the affairs of such corporation ; provided however, that before any such association shall be entitled to the privileges of this act, they shall lodge with the clerk of the county wherein such cor- poration is designed to act, a copy of their articles of association, signed by the members originating the same, to be by him recorded ; provided also, that this act may at any time be altered and repealed by the General Assembly.
114 SEC.2. And, be it enacted, That the privileges of this act shall not be ex- :- tended to joint stock companies formed for the purpose of banking, trading, .. mining, manufacturing, or to associations intended for the accumulation of +. capital, with a view to profits and dividends for gains ; which shall remain - as heretofore, subject to the special action of the Legislature.
1.r. SEC. B. , And be it enacted, That the property, real or personal, or capital ... stock of every such corporation contemplated by this act, shall in no case exceed the sum of ten thousand dollars ; and it shall not be lawful for the irsaid corporation to, direct its operations or appropriate its funds to any other than the purpose distinctly and definitely expressed in the articles of asso- ¡ ciation, and, no, increase of the capital, or funds of any such corporation, ¡- beyond said sum shall be lawful, but by application to and consent of the Legislature ; otherwise, such increase shall operate as a dissolution of said r:corporation as to all the privileges herein granted.
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CODE OF MARYLAND OF 1888. PUBLIC GENERAL LAWS.
ARTICLE XXIII. CORPORATIONS.
14. Corporations may be formed in this State under the provisions hereinafter set forth, by any five or more persons, citizens of the United States and a majority of them citizens of this State, or, if unnaturalized, residents of this State, making oath that they bona fide intend to become citizens of the United States without unreasonable delay, who may desire to form a body corporate or politic for any of the following purposes :
Class 1. For the creation and maintenance of educational, moral, scien- tific, literary, dramatic, musical, social, benevolent, or beneficial societies or associations of all descriptions ; of religious or charitable societies or associations, fire engines and hose companies, and of uniformed volunteer companies, of universities, colleges, academies, hospitals or asylums : Provided such corporations are located in this State, and that the property which they possess or acquire is located therein, but corporations formed for the creation and maintenance of educational associations, universities, colleges, academies, hospitals or asylums, may take and hold any property, real or personal, situate out of this State, which may be given, devised or bequeathed to said corporations, and may hold, use or sell and convey the same, or may deal with it in any manner not inconsistent with law.1
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42. Any five or more persons, citizens of the United States and a majority of them citizens of this State, who may desire to form a corpora- tion for any of the purposes hereinbefore referred to, shall make, sign, seal and acknowledge before some officer competent to take the acknowledg- ment of deeds a certificate in writing, in which shall be stated; 1. The names in full and place of residence of the applicants ; 2. The proposed corporate name of the corporation, which shall always include the name of the county or city in which it may be formed ; 3. The objects or purposes for which incorporation is sought, the time of its existence, not to exceed forty years, and the articles, conditions, and provisions under which the
incorporation is formed ;2 * * * 4. The place or places where the operations of the corporation are to be carried on, and the place in this State in which the principal office of the corporation will be located ; 5. The amount of capital stock (if any) of the corporation ; 6. The number of shares of stock, (if any,) and the amount of each share ; 7. The number of trustees, directors, or managers and their names, who shall manage the concerns of the corporation for the first year.
1. Last clause of proviso added, 1890, c. 339. 2. See Act of 1894, c. 557.
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43. When said certificate is executed it shall be the duty of the persons executing the same to submit it to one of the judges of the judicial circuit within which the principal or any other office of said corporation is, under said certificate, to be located, if it shall be located in one of the counties in this State, or to one of the judges of the supreme bench of Baltimore city, if the principal office of said corporation shall be located in Baltimore city, in order that the said judge may determine whether the said certificate is in conformity with the law ; and such determination, when certified by the said judge as required by the next succeeding section, shall be conclusive evidence that such certificate does conform to the law.
44. If the said judge shall so determine he shall certify his said deter- mination upon the said certificate, which shall thereupon be recorded in the office of the clerk of the circuit court for the county in which the principal office of said corporation shall by the terms of said certificate, be located, if it shall be located in one of the counties of this State, or in the office of the clerk of the superior court of Baltimore city if the principal office of said corporation shall be located therein ; and the said certificate shall be recorded in a book provided for that special purpose.
45. When the said certificate shall have been recorded the persons who have signed and acknowledged the same and their successors shall, accord- ing to the objects, purposes, articles, conditions, and provisions in said instrument contained, become and be a body politic and corporate, in fact and in law, by the name stated in such certificate.
46. A copy of such certificate, or of any amendments thereto, or of any paper relating to corporations, which is required by law to be recorded, when certified to be a true copy by the clerk of the court in whose office the same is recorded, under the seal of his office, shall be evidence in all legal proceedings, and in all the courts of this State.
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205. In every church, religious society or congregation, of whatever sect, order or denomination, or which shall at any time hereafter be known or acknowledged in the State, and protected in the free and full exercise of its religion by the constitution and laws thereof, there shall be sufficient power and authority in all persons above twenty-one years of age, belong- ing to any such church, society or congregation, to elect, at their discretion, certain sober and discreet persons, not less than four nor more than twelve, which persons so elected, upon being registered as hereinafter directed, shall be constituted a body politic or corporate to act as trustees in the name and behalf of the particular church, society or congregation for which they are respectively chosen, and to manage the estate, property, interest and inheritance of the same.
206. The trustees so elected shall have perpetual succession by their name of incorporation, and shall be capable in law to purchase, take and hold to them and their successors in fee, or for a less estate, any lands, tenements or hereditaments, rents or annuities, goods or chattels within this State, by the gift, bargain, sale, or devise of any person, body politic or corporate, capable of making the same, and to use or lease, mortgage or sell and convey the same in such manner as they may judge most con- ducive to the interest of their respective churches, societies, or congrega-
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tions ; Provided, that nothing herein shall authorize any sale, mortgage or other disposition of any property held by such corporation, under any instrument prohibiting such sale; and provided the clear yearly income from the estate of any church, society or congregation, exclusive of the rents of pews, collections in churches, funeral charges and the like, shall not exceed the yearly sum of twenty thousand dollars.
207. Every such body politic shall be chosen, and the succession kept up at such times and places as are ordinarily used for public meetings of the said church, society or congregation, and by such persons as are allowed to have a voice in the management and direction of congregational or tem- poral concerns, according to the known custom and usage of their respective denominations ; or the said body politic or corporate shall be chosen and the succession kept up according to the rules, regulations and practice that may have been heretofore adopted and agreed upon, or that shall be, at the first time of electing, agreed upon and adopted by any particular church, society or congregation for directing or managing their congregational or temporal affairs.
208. The minister, for the time being, or senior minister, where there are more than one settled in any church, society or congregation, shall always, in virtue of his ministry, be a member of the body politic or cor- porate belonging to the same, exclusive of the number heretofore prescribed in section 205.
209. If any contest shall arise in any church, society or congregation, about the right of voting, or whether the election has been fairly conducted agreeably to the true intent and meaning of this article, the parties con- tending shall each of them choose one discreet and reputable person from amongst the members or trustees of some neighboring congregation or society of the same religious persuasion, if any such there be, and if none such, then of any other religious society, which two persons shall choose a third, qualified in like manner, and the said three persons shall meet at the place where the difference has arisen, and hear and determine upon the matter ; and their judgment and award, or the judgment or award of a majority of them, certified under their hands and seals to the contending parties, shall be final.
210. At the first election or appointment of every body politic or cor- porate aforesaid, every church, society or corporation assembled as already directed, shall determine on their plan, agreement or regulation, specifying distinctly the time and manner of electing trustees, and the manner in which the succession shall be perpetuated, and containing an exact description of the qualifications of the persons severally electing and elected, and to elect and to be elected thereafter, and also the name, style or title of the corporation by which it shall thereafter be known, and the name of the church, society or congregation choosing the same.
211. The said plan, agreement or regulation shall be entered in the book hereinafter required by section 214, to be kept by every such corpo- ration, and the same shall be acknowledged by the trustees, or a majority of them, before a justice of the peace, a notary public, or a judge of the circuit court in the counties, or a judge of the supreme bench of Baltimore
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City ; and such justice, notary, or judge shall append to said instrument a certificate of such acknowledgment, and in all cases where through inad- vertence or mistake, such plan, agreement, or regulation has been hereto- fore acknowledged before one justice of the peace instead of two, such acknowledgment shall be and is hereby made, to all intents and purposes, good and sufficient for the incorporation of the church, society or congre- gation named therein.1
212. The plan or agreement, so acknowledged and certified, shall be filed by the said trustees with the clerk of the circuit court for the county where the said church, society or congregation, or the greater part of the members thereof reside, or the clerk of the superior court of Baltimore City, if they, or the greater part of the members reside in the City of Baltimore, within six months after such acknowledgment shall be made ; and the same shall be recorded at the expense of the corporation, in a book to be kept for that special purpose.
213. If any change shall be made in the original plan by authority of the congregation, such change shall, in the same manner, be acknowledged and recorded.
214. Every such corporation may appoint the times and places of the meeting of its members, and the number necessary to constitute a quorum, and shall provide and keep a good and sufficient record book, and cause therein to be registered all its proceedings, subject at all times to the inspection of the several members of the church, society or congregation ; and the same shall be laid before a public meeting when required by any five or more of the members ; and the said trustees, or a majority of them, shall have full power to frame such rules and ordinances for conducting their concerns as may be necessary and convenient for accomplishing the end of their institution.
215. When any number of persons belonging to any church, or congre- gation, sufficient to build a church or house of worship, and to maintain a minister, shall choose to separate from the church or congregation of which they have hitherto been a part, and to erect a house of worship, and employ a minister for themselves, it shall be lawful for them to do so; and they shall, by their respective name or style, be entitled to all the benefits of this article relating to their incorporation : Provided only, That all arrear- ages, debts, and engagements contracted, due or becoming due, while members of the former society, shall be discharged.
216. The person or persons holding lands or goods and chattels in trust for any particular church or society shall convey the same to the corpora- tion of such particular church or society, as soon as the same shall be formed under this article.
217. Nothing in this article shall prevent the Protestant Episcopal Church from incorporating the vestries in the several parishes, according to the usages of the said Church.2
1. Act of 1892. c. 664, amended this section as above.
2. Amended, Act of 1892, c. 702. But see Resolution No. 64.
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ARTICLE XXVII. CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS. .
DESTROYING CHURCH PROPERTY MALICIOUSLY.
53. If any person unlawfully and maliciously shall disfigure, cut, muti- late, injure or damage any church, house of worship, its pews, seats, walls, windows, shutters, trees, tombstones, fencing, inclosures or other property in or belonging thereto, or any parsonage, its furniture, trees, fencing or inclosures, near and belonging to the same, he shall, on conviction before a justice of the peace, or the circuit court for the county or criminal court of Baltimore, where the said property may be situated, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined in the discretion of the said justice or court in a sum of money not less than three dollars nor more than fifty dollars for any one offence, and shall stand committed to the public jail of the county or city until the fine and fees shall be paid.
COLLECTION OF TOLLS FROM FUNERALS.
121. No turnpike, bridge or ferry company, and no proprietors of any turnpike or other road, bridge or ferry, shall collect any tolls upon any carriages or other vehicles, or horses, going to or returning from any funeral ; every tollgatherer who shall knowingly collect any tolls contrary to the above provisions, or who shall knowingly refuse to allow any horse or vehicle going to or returning from a funeral, to pass without payment of toll, shall forfeit and pay for every such offence a sum of not less than $50 and not more than $100, one-half to the informer and the other half to the State ; and the company or other parties owning such road, bridge or ferry shall also be responsible for the same.
MARRYING UNLAWFULLY.
193. If any minister shall knowingly celebrate the rites of marriage between any persons related in the degrees of kindred and affinity pro- hibited by law, he shall, on conviction, pay five hundred dollars.
194. If any minister, pastor or other person who, according to the laws of this State do usually join people in marriage, shall upon any pretence join in marriage any negro with any white person, he shall, on conviction, be fined one hundred dollars.
195. If any person shall celebrate the rites of marriage between any persons except the persons authorized by the laws of this State to celebrate the rites of marriage, such person on conviction thereof shall be fined five hundred dollars.
198. If any minister shall marry any person without such license or pub- lication, on conviction thereof, he shall be fined one hundred dollars.
199. If any minister shall knowingly join in marriage any male under the age of twenty-one years, or any female under the age of sixteen years, and not before married, without the consent of the parent or guardian of every such person, personally given or signified under the hand and seal of the said parent or guardian, and attested by two witnesses, he shall on convic- tion, be fined fifteen hundred dollars.
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