§ 490. All religious societies and congregations, instituted for public religious worship, are required, at their annual meeting, to choose two or more tithingmen, who must be sworn to discharge with fidelity the duties of their office; and such tithingmen are required to act in connection with grand jurors in apprehending transgressors of the law for the due observance of the Sabbath or Lord's day. (R. S. of 1866, Title LII, Sec. 9.)

§ 491. All of the proceedings in relation to religious societies in the State of Connecticut are so very simple that no forms are thought necessary to be prescribed, and none are therefore given. The law herein laid down, however, should be consulted in each individual case. By so doing no mistakes will be likely to occur.

CHAPTER XXXIV,

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES IN NEW JERSEY—SOCIETIES, HOW INCORPORATED THE TRUSTEES-THEIR POWERS-MAY ELECT A PRESIDENT AND HIS DUTIES-REFORMED DUTCH CHURCHESGERMAN REFORMED CHURCHES PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCHES-EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCHES AND JEWS.

§ 492. Every religious society or congregation of Christians in the State of New Jersey, entitled to protection in the free exercise of their religion by the Constitution and laws of the State, are authorized to assemble at their usual place of meeting for public worship, at any time by them to be agreed upon, giving at least ten days' notice of the time and purpose of assembling, by an advertisement set np in open view at or near such place of meeting, and, when so

assembled, may, by plurality of voices of such of the said society or congregation as are present, elect any number, not exceeding seven, of the said society or congregation to be trustees of the same; and the said trustees, and their successors in office, are constituted a body politic and corporate in law, by whatever name they shall assume, agreeably to the directions prescribed by the general incorporating act. (Elmer's Digest of Laws of New Jersey, Title, Religious Societies, Sec. 1.)

§ 493. The trustees, when they take upon themselves a name, must certify the same under their hands and seals, and transmit such certificate to the clerk of the court of common pleas of the county, whose duty it is made instantly to record the same, for which he is entitled to receive one dollar; and thereupon such trustees will be known and distinguished in law by the name of incorporation so taken, certified and recorded. (Ib., Sec. 2.)

§ 494. The said trustees, and their successors, are declared to be able and capable, by their name of incorporation, to acquire, purchase, receive, have and hold any lands, tenements, hereditaments, legacies, donations, moneys, goods and chattels, in trust for the use of the said society or congregation, to an amount in value not exceeding two thousand dollars a year, and the same, or any part thereof, to sell, grant, assign, demise, alien and dispose of; to sue or be sued, implead or be impleaded, in any court of law or equity; to make and use a common seal, and the same to alter and renew at their pleasure. (Ib., Sec. 3.)

§ 495. For perpetuating a line of succession in the trustees of every religious society or congregation, it is made lawful for the members of the said society or congregation to assemble at any time they may think proper, giving notice

thereof as directed for the election of the first trustees, or for the election of any other trustee or trustees, in the stead of those, or any of those, before elected, in case they see cause for the removal of any of the said trustees, provided such removal shall not be in less than one year after his or their election into office; and also to fill up any vacancy which may be occasioned by the death or resignation of any trustee, or his moving out of the limits of the said society or congregation. (Ib., Sec. 4.)

§ 496. Such corporation may elect annually, or oftener if necessary or expedient, one of their own members to be their president, who must keep the minutes, and enter the orders, acts and proceedings by the corporation in a book to be kept for that purpose; who must have the custody of the common seal, and the papers, deeds, writings, documents and books of or relating to the said corporation, and who is empowered to convene the said corporation, as occasion may require; and in case of his absence, sickness, death, resignation, refusal to act, or moving out of the limits of the said religious society or congregation, then the said office of president is devolved on the senior trustee for the time being, who must occupy the same until the return or recovery of the president, or the election of another. Upon application to the president, any member of the said religious society or congregation may have free access to all the papers, deeds, writings, minutes, documents and books of or belonging to the said corporation. (Ib., Secs. 5 and 6.)

§ 497. Upon the death, resignation, removal or expiration of the office of president, or election of a new one, the common seal, and all the minutes, papers, deeds, writings, documents and books of or belonging to such corporation, must be delivered to the successor in office, on the oath of the preceding president, or in case of his death, on the oath of

his executors or administrators, under such pecuniary penalty as the said corporation may have previously fixed and ordained to be recovered, with costs, by action of debt in the name and for the use of said corporation. The proceedings, orders and acts of a majority of all the members of the said corporation, and not of a less number, are declared valid and effectual in law. (Ib., Secs. 7 and 8.)

§ 498. None of the foregoing provisions are to be construed as extending to or affecting the Reformed Dutch churches in the State. The minister or ministers, elders and deacons, for the time being, of every Reformed Dutch congregation, are made, by statute, trustees of the same, and a body politic and corporate in law, by such name as the said trustees shall assume, which name must be taken, certified, transmitted and recorded the same as is the case of other religious societies; whereupon the said trustees will be known and distinguished in law by the name of incorporation so taken, entered and recorded; and they will possess all the rights, powers and privileges of other religious corporations in the State, except that no deed or instrument of conveyance, in their case, for any lands, tenements, hereditaments or real estate, will be good and effectual in law, unless it be sealed with the common seal, and signed by a majority of the members of the said corporation. (Ib., Secs. 9, 11, 12 and 13.)

§ 499. It is made lawful for the trustees of any Reformed Dutch congregation, incorporated by charter or other law of the State, prior to the passage of the general incorporating act, to renounce or forego such charter or act of incorporation, by writing under their hands and seals, and recorded as aforesaid, upon condition that the ministers, elders and deacons, or elders and deacons, as the case may require of such congregation, shall incorporate themselves pursuant to the directions of the act in the last preceding section referred

to and explained. Upon being re-incorporated as aforesaid, their former incorporation and body politic will cease and be dissolved; and all the estate, real and personal, held by virtue of the same, will pass to and be vested in the body politic and corporate last formed as aforesaid, who will be deemed to be the legal successors in office of the former body politic and corporate, and liable to their debts. (Ib., Sec. 14.)

§ 500. Where two or more of the said Reformed Dutch congregations, which have been united in one body politic, shall be disunited by renouncing or foregoing their former incorporation, and shall, each or any of them, become incorporated under the provision of law aforesaid, then such lands, tenements, hereditaments, moneys, goods and chattels, as of right belong to each of the said congregations, separately considered, shall be and remain in the peaceable and quiet possession of the body politic and corporate of that particular church to which such real and personal estate of right may belong; and all real and personal property acquired by such congregations during their union of a body politic, must be divided between such congregations in such manner as shall be agreed upon by the trustees of the said corporation. (Ib., Sec. 15.)

§ 501. If the trustees of any two or more of the said Reformed Dutch congregations, by whatever name known and distinguished in their respective charters or acts of incorporation, see cause to renounce or forego their separate corporations, and be formed into one joint corporation and body politic, it is made lawful for such trustees, by mutual consent, to renounce or forego their separate charters or acts of incorporation, by writing under their hands and seals, which must signify also their intention to become one joint corporation and body politic, and must be recorded in manner aforesaid, upon condition that the said trustees shall form