King
William's First Parliament. Sess. 6. IN SCOTLAND.
Act Anent the Aliment of poor Prisoners,
October the 9th. 1696.
OUR Soveraign Lord Considering, that generally the Burghs of this Kingdom Havers of Prisoners, are troubled and overcharg'd with Prisoners thrust into their Prisons, who have nothing to maintain themselves, but must of necessity either starve or be a burden upon the Burgh; doth therefore, and for Remedy thereof, with Advice and Consent of the Estates of Parliament Statute and Ordain, that where any person is made, or shall be made prisoner for any Civil Debt or Cause, and shall be found or become so poor as that he cannot Aliment himself, then and in that Case it shall be Leasume to the Magistrates of the Burgh, where the prison is, to which the said prisoner is committed; upon the Complaint of the said prisoner, and his making Faith in their presence, that he hath not wherewith to Aliment himself, to intimate the same to the Creditors, one or more at whose instance the said prisoner was committed or is detained, and to require him or them, either to provide and give security for an Aliment to them, not under 3 s.per diem, or else to consent to his Liberation, which if the said Creditors refuse or delay to do, within the space of ten days thereafter, then it shall be Leasume to the said Magistrates, to set the said poor indigent prisoner at Liberty, without hazard of being liable for the Debt and cause of the Imprisonment, or to any other censure whatsoever. Provided always that if any other Creditor, at whose Instance he is made or detained prisoner, give security to Aliment the said Indigent Debtor, he shall still be keeped prisoner as before. As also that prisoners for Criminal Causes be in the same State as formerly.