CHAPTER 297.
An Act to incorporate "The Trustees of the Home for Friendless and Destitute Children" in the City of Wilmington.
Whereas, by private munificence; an institution has been founded in the City of Wilmington, for the laudable and benevolent purpose of educating and providing for friendless, and destitute children: and whereas, the General Assembly of the State of Delaware, desire to encourage such purposes, Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met, (two-thirds of each branch concurring.)
SECTION 1. That J. Taylor Cause, Merrit Canby, William Aikman, Charles B. Lore, Charles Warner, Daniel M. Bates, Samuel Harlan, Jr., Mahlon Betts, James S. Dickerson, William Tatnall, and George W. Bush, and their associates be, and they are hereby incorporated and made a body politic in law, by the name and style of "The Trustees of the Home for Friendless and Destitute Children," in the City of Wilmington, and by the same name they shall have succession for twenty years, and shall be capable in law to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded in all Courts of record and elsewhere, and shall have power and authority to make and use a common seal, and to alter and change the same at their pleasure, and shall be competent and capable in law and equity to take and to hold to them and their successors, for the use of said corporation, lands, tenements, hereditaments, goods, chattels, rights, interest and effects of any kind, nature or quality whatsoever, by gift; grant, bargain, sale, conveyance, assurance, will, testament, devise or bequest, from any person or persons capable of making the same, and the same from time to time to grant, bargain sell, demise, alien, lease, and dispose of for the use of the said corporation, and they shall have power to purchase or erect such building or buildings as may be necessary for the purposes of said institution, and power also to do all and singular the things necessary, proper and lawful to be done for the well-being of the said institution and the due management and well ordering of the affairs thereof: Provided, That the clear yearly income of the lands and tenements, to be taken and holden as aforesaid, shall not exceed the sum of ten thousand dollars.
SECTION 2. The Trustees shall hereafter be elected by such persons, in such manner, at such times and places, and for such term or terms as shall be prescribed in the By-Laws of the Institution, The Board of Trustees appointed under the present act, shall hold their first meeting on the first Tuesday of April next, in the City of Wilmington, at such place, and hour as they or a majority of them shall designate, and they or their successors, shall meet annually thereafter at such times and places as they by their By-Laws shall appoint. Any vacancy occurring in the Board of Trustees from death, resignation or otherwise, in the interval between regular elections, may be filled by the then existing Board, and the person or persons so made Trustees, shall hold office until the next regular election thereafter.
SECTION 3. That the said Trustees and their successors shall have power to meet from time to time, whenever and so often as the interests of the said institution may require in such manner and according to such regulations as they by their by-laws may direct, and they shall have power at any meeting convened as aforesaid, to appoint a President, Treasurer, Secretary, a Board of Lady Managers, and such teachers, visitors and care-takers as the convenient management of the affairs of the said corporation may require, or as may be necessary and proper for the instruction, control and care of the children received into the said institution, and to do all such other business as the proper management of the funds and the general interests and concerns of said corporation may require.
SECTION 4. That it shall and may be lawful for the said Trustees in their discretion, to take under their guardianship all children who may be placed under their care and management in either of the following modes:
First. Children under fourteen years of age, who shall be voluntarily surrendered by their fathers, or, in case of their death or absence, by their mothers or by their guardians to the care of the said Trustees.
Second. Children under fourteen years of age, who shall be committed to the care of the said Trustees by any Judge of Court of the State of Delaware, residing in New Castle County, or by the Mayor of the City of Wilmington, on account of vagrancy; or the exposure, neglect or abandonment of said children by their parent or parents, guardian or other person having custody of said children; and it shall* the duty of any Judge or Mayor so committing any child to the care of said Trustees, to annex to said commitment, an abstract of the evidence taken by him in which his adjudication was founded, which said evidence shall be under oath or affirmation and taken in the presence of said child.
SECTION 5. That the said Trustees shall have the guardianship of said children so placed under their care and management during their minority, shall cause them to be educated and instructed in a proper manner, and may, when in their discretion it shall appear proper, bind the said children with their consent, as apprentices during their minority, to such persons and at such places, and to learn such trades and employments as in the judgment of said Trustees will be most conducive to the benefit and advantage of said children: Provided, the power and charge of said Trustees over and upon the said children shall not extend in the case of males beyond the age of twenty-one years, and in the case of females beyond the age of eighteen years, but the said Trustees may in their discretion return the said children to their parents or surviving parent or guardian.
SECTION 6. That no misnomer of the said Corporation shall defeat or annul any gift, grant, devise or bequest to the said Corporation: Provided, it shall sufficiently appear by the will, gift, grant, or other writing, that the party making the same intended to give or pass thereby to the said Corporation, the interest or estate therein expressed or described.
SECTION 7. The power of revoking or repealing this act, is hereby expressly reserved to the Legislature.
Passed at Dover, March 23, 1863.
*So in original