-------- Original Message -------- Subject: {not a subscriber} "Laying off" taxes Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2001 07:48:28 -0700 From: "Paul Drake" <martee@citlink.net> To: <VA-SOUTHSIDE-L@rootsweb.com> Cookie asked: "...> Another question you might be able to answer..... > > Lunenburg Order Book 2, p 139 February Court 1748/49 > 8 Feb 1748/9 - Court for laying the County Levy > To whom granted William Bowen Junr > by whom granted Rob H Dyer > date of cert 19 Nov 1748 > quitrnts Tob[acc]o 140 > > This was just one of many entries for various people recorded similarly. The > page was actually set up in columns rather than across as I have it. There > was a whole list of people with info entered under the same columns. There > was nothing further at the beginning to help explain it - just the date and > Court for laying the County Levy" Ms. Cookie; You have found a record and list of landowners whose taxes ("levys" "levies") were "layd off to and recognized by the county as having been the obligation of someone else. Such situations arose when by reason of leases, land contracts, mortgages, and other legal devices, the taxes should be paid by a third party and not by the record owner, i.e., by lessees, renters, coteanants, heirs, etc. We still use the expression in a critical or blaming fashion when we say that as to some duty, "Jones laid the blame off on Smith."