Private Acts of 1819 Chapter 146

WHEREAS it is represented to this General Assembly, that there are many inhabitants, and much business at and about the Chickasaw Bluff, and that to those people the regular and convenient administration of the laws would be greatly beneficial- wherefore:

SECTION 1. That a new county be called and known by the name of Shelby, in honor and to perpetuate the name of Issac Shelby, late Governor of Kentucky, be, and is hereby established in the southwest corner of this state, and that the county so established, shall be bounded as follows, to wit: beginning in the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river, where the southern boundary of this state, lately marked by General James Winchester, strikes the western boundary of the state, thence east thirty miles along said southern boundary line to the eighty mile tree, thence north to a point, from which a due west corner to the center of the main channel of the Mississippi, and thence down the main channel of the Mississippi to the beginning will include a constitutional county of six hundred and twenty five square miles.

SECTION 2. That for the due administration of Justice in the said county of Shelby, the courts hereinafter established shall be holden, commencing on the first Monday in May next, and quarterly thereafter, until the end of the next stated General Assembly, at the Chickasaw Bluff, at such house and place therein as a majority of the Justices of the said county shall appoint, and all courts shall be held by commission to the said Justices, in the same manner and under the same rules and restrictions, and shall have and exercise the same powers and jurisdiction as either the county courts, or quorum courts in the respective counties of this state, combining therein, their respective original jurisdictions, and said justices shall also have and hold jurisdiction of all causes out of court that ordinarily belong to justices of the peace.

SECTION 3. That in all cases, where appeals, writs of error, or other process are allowed, an appeal, writ of error, or other process may and shall be from said courts of Shelby county to the circuit court of Humphreys county, under the same rules and restrictions as are provided by law.

SECTION 4. That there shall be appointed by joint resolution of both houses of the General Assembly, five justices of said county to be commissioned as aforesaid, who shall have and possess the jurisdiction as specified in this act, of whom three at least shall be necessary to constitute a court, and said justices shall be allowed the usual fees out of court, and the pay for holding court, that is allowed in similar cases by law.

SECTION 5. That the sheriff of Stuart county, or collector of public taxes or monies due on executions within said county, shall have power to collect the same, in the same manner, as if this act had not passed.

SECTION 6. That the militia of said county shall be organized and the officers elected, as in other counties, according to the laws now in force and used in this state, and be attached to the fifth brigade.

SECTION 7. That the court herein before constituted and appointed, are authorized and required to appoint a solicitor to prosecute in behalf of the government, until an attorney general shall be appointed for the circuit, which shall include said county; and in the mean time they are authorized and empowered to make an allowance to said solicitor, out of any county monies for his ex-officio services of any sum not exceeding fifty dollars.

Nov. 24, 1819.