TIP# 147 - SURVEYORS, TAVERNS & TIPPLING HOUSES AND GAMING TABLES We're going back for this tip to the old 1822 statutes of the State of Kentucky to help determine why things were done as they were. Chapter CLXXVII of the Kentucky Statutes deals with Surveyors and had been enacted by the Legislature 27 December 1806. Here are the steps determined by law. SURVEYORS TO TAKE AN OATH: Surveyors were to be appointed by "virtue of the eighth section of the fourth article of the constitution", and had to then appears in the county court from which he had been appointed to "give assurance of fidelity to the commonwealth of Kentucky …. Shall take the oath of allegiance to the United States…" POSTING BOND: After taking the oath, he entered into bond with good and sufficient security or securities in the sum of $3,000 to ensure his faithful and due execution of the duties of his office. If the surveyor was already "in office" before the passage of this bill, he also had to post bond by the next June in the sum not exceeding $400. RECOVERING THEIR FEES: Reference was made to surveyors in an earlier law passed 18 December 1802 where the surveyor had already acted as a surveyor, to recover any fees due him. VIRGINIA LAW CITED: This was based on an "Act of Virginia passed in 1772" which stated that from the first day in June, 1773, every surveyor shall, under penalty of 5 pounds, return all his or their original or new surveys and lay down their plats by a true, not by the artificial or magnetic meridian, and were to express and declare in or on the plat and return of each survey by him or them taken or made, the true quantity or degree of the variation thereof, whether it be east or west. It was added that when any surveyor was called on to re-survey any previously surveyed lands, he had to return and certify in his platt the quantity or degree of the variation of the magnetic needle from the true meridian or suffer a penalty. TAVERNS & TIPPLING HOUSES: According to the law passed 19 Dec 1793 (Chapter CLXXIX), every person who intended to keep a tavern or house of entertainment, had to first petition the county court of his residence for opening same. The license, if approved, was valid for a period of one year, and the license had to be signed by the presiding justice of the court. No license was granted to anyone of "bad character, or who does not keep an orderly house." The owner then had to enter into bond with security in the amount of 100 pounds. [Note: Taverns during the early times were not only a place to buy liquor, but were also the precursors of hotels. Stables were provided for the horses of the travelers and food for the horses.] TAVERN RATES: These rates were set by the justices of the court at least twice a year. These included the cost of liquors, lodging, diet, stableage, provender and pasturage. The tavern owner had one month after the rates were set to obtain from the clerk of the court a fair table of the rates that had to posted prominently. If the tavern operator tried to gouge his customers by charging rates above what had been set, he had to pay 30 shillings for every offence. SELLING LIQUORS WITHOUT A LICENSE: If an individual tried to keep a tippling house or sold by retail wine, beer, brandy, cider, whiskey, rum, or any spiritious liquor from any house, booth, arbor, stall, boat or anyplace without a license, that person had to forfeit and pay 3 pounds. On a second charge, the penalty was doubled, the liquor was seized and the liquor sold by a justice for the best price he could get for it. The monies derived from the sale was transmitted to some of the overseers of the poor. BREACH OF BOND: If a tavern keeper was found guilty by a grand jury for breach of the condition of his bond, the attorney for the county ordered an execution and fine with the monies arising going to the county. The individual's bond could be later restored. The individual had the right of appeal if he felt he was unfairly charged. SELLING LIQUORS NEAR A HOUSE OF WORSHIP: No alcohol was to be sold within ½ miles of a house of worship; penalty for so doing was ten dollars and any other fines the county wished to impose. COUNTY LIST OF TAVERN OWNERS: The county clerk had to prepare a list of all the tavern keepers in his county which was turned over to the Circuit Court. SECOND SUSPENSION OF LICENSE: If a tavern keeper had his license suspended a second time by the trustees of a town or any justices, there was a one year waiting period before the tavern keeper could reapply for a license. KEEPING A TIPPLING HOUSE: I can find no difference in old definitions between a tavern and a tippling house; they appear to be interchangeable in these laws. It was required from March 1820, that anyone who kept a tavern or tippling house for the purpose of making a profit, HAD to provide accommodations for the entertainment and convenience of travelers plus the pasturing of horses and food for same or they would be fined 200 dollars fore every 3 months they were operating outside the rules. CHANGES IN RULES: Later, additional fine tunings were made to the laws which forbade selling any liquor from a booth, arbor, stall, public square, market house, race field and increasing the distance away from a church being one mile. GAMING: There were three acts of Kentucky passed on the gaming rules and Virginia acts which were kept in effect (Chapter LXXXVIII). The first covered all promises, agreements, notes, bills, bonds, judgments, mortgages or other securities given, made, granted, drawn or entered into by any person or persons or any part thereof, or any other valuable things whatsoever won, laid, or betted at cards, dice-tables, all of the above were considered null and void. The above was in reference just to gaming. In 1804 it was ordered that all Justices of the Peace who learned of (or saw personally) any "A. B. C. or E.O. table, or any kind of table, bank, wheel, machine or any contrivance used for the betting or winning of money, lands, tenements, goods or chattels, were to notify the sheriff or constable and destroy same by burning or other means the same. [An ABC Table was defined as a gambling table of unknown description. Most states, including Virginia and North Carolina forbade them.] © 7 May 1998, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved. sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Sandi Gorin - 205 Clements Ave., Glasgow, KY 42141-3409 (502)651-9114 or sgorin@glasgow-ky.com - Kentucky Colonel PUBLISHING: http://members.tripod.com/~GorinS/index.html KYRESEARCH: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Tips KYBIOS: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Bios BARREN CO OBITUARIES: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/ BarrenObits