V
20th CONGRESS,
   1st Session.
[ 167  ]
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SISTERS OF CHARITY OF ST. JOSEPH,
THAYINO TO BE
INCORPORATED WITHIN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
                     April 8, 1828.

"Referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia, and ordered to be printed,
ticiDtCAl < i:r,£Nv
   WASHINGTON:

PRINTED BY DUFF GREEN,

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[167 3
MEMORIAL,
 To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the
                          United States;

       The Memorial of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph,
Respectfully represents:
   That their Institution was established near the town of Emmetsburg,
Frederick county, in the State of Maryland,  in July, 1809; and that
on the 17th of January, 1817, the Legislature of  that State passed an
act of incorporation, granting them certain rights and immunities, a
copy of which will accompany this memorial.
   The objects of their Society are works of piety, charity, and use-
fulness; and especially the  care of the sick;  the  succor of the  aged,
infirm, and necessitous persons; and the  education of young females.
At their Institution a large number of young females, from all parts of
the United States, have been, and a numerous collection of them con-
tinue to  be educated, in the useful as well as the ornamental branches
of female education.  At this Institution, many orphans from the town
and  surrounding  country are clothed,  fed, and educated; and many
children, whose  parents are  unable to educate them, are taught such
branches as may be most useful, as well as supplied with clothing, and
with food, during their attendance at school.
   Independent of the Mother House, branches have been established,
on the solicitations of individuals, as well as of charitable institutions,
in the cities of New-York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Fredericktown,
and  Washington.   In Baltimore—exclusive of those  in  the Asylum
and  Free School—a detachment of this Association were called, by
the voice of the  highly respectable and discerning Medical Faculty,
as well as by that of humanity, to the care of the Baltimore Infirm-
ary: the summons was obeyed: and several of the Sisters of  Charity
have now an opportunity of illustrating, in that patriotic  and hospita-
ble city, one of the objects of their Institution,  in managing the in-
ternal concerns of that useful asylum;  executing  the orders and pre-
scriptions of those able and experienced physicians who have it under
charge; in nursing the aged, decrepit, and diseased, and assuaging the
tortures of the wounded.
  In approaching your honorable body as the Legislature of the Dis-
trict of Columbia.) your memorialists beg  leave to  state that they have 
[  167 ]
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now, in  this City, the charge of an Asylum, where seventeen little
orphans are clothed, fed,  educated and protected; and three hundred
and fifty-three female children, whose parents are unable to afford them
an education, have been received; and one hundred and fifty are daily
instructed in such branches as are calculated to make them ornaments
to, as well as useful members of, society; and that to enable them to
carry into effect the benefits to society contemplated, it will be neces-
sary that they possess both  personal  and real property, with other
powers, which, as a body, they are advised they cannot possess under
the charter from Maryland. The Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, there-
fore, pray your honorable body to pass an act of incorporation granting
them the privilege of holding property, and the power of suing and
being sued; to have and use a common seal; with such other powers
as may seem meet and just to your honorable body, to enable them to
carry into effect the objects of their Association, as set forth  in this
memorial, within the District of Columbia; and, as in duty bound, they
will ever acknowledge, with feelings of gratitude, the favor conferred.
                                 SISTER ROSE WHITE,
                     For and on behalf of the Sisters of Charity
                                    of  St. Joseph.
  Washington City, April 7, 1828.
Copy of an act of Maryland, Incorporating the Sisters of Charity of St~
                             Joseph.

           CHAPTER XCV.—Passed January 17, 1817.

An act to incorporate the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's, in Frederick
                 County.—Lib. th. No. 5.  fol. 234.
  Whereas, Elizabeth A. Seton,  Elizabeth  Boyle,  Cecilia 0. Conway,
Jane Smith, Rosetta White, Margaret George, Bridget Farrell, Mary Ann
Butler, Frances Jourdan, Susanna Closey, Teresa Conway, Jane Francis
Gartland,  Eleanor Angela Brady, Ann Gruber, Adele Salva, Elizabeth
Magdalene Guerin, Sarah Thompson, Camilla Corish, Margaret Felicity
Brady, Scholastica Beams, Julia Shirk, and Louisa Roger, by their humble
petition to this General Assembly, have represented, that being unmarri-
ed women,  and above the age oj twenty-one years, they have formed them-
selves into a religious association, by the name of the Sisters of Charity
of St. Joseph's, and under the superintendence of certain clergymen, of
their religious persuasion, for works of piety, charity and usefulness, and
especially for the care of the sick, the succor of aged, infirm and neces.
sitous persons, and the  education of young females; which  association,
from its nature and objects, as well as its positive regulations, must always
be composed of unmarried women; that for the purposes of their institution,
and as a place of residence for themselves and their  successors, a farm
nearEmmitsburg,in Frederick county, in this State, has been bestowed on
them by a pious and charitable person, from the cultivation and rents of 
5
£  167  ]
Which, they derive a part of their support, and on which their own indus-
try, and some  charitable donations, have enabled them to erect suitable
buildings for their residence, and for the use of their school; that as the in-
dividuals who compose their association, change by deaths and new admis-
sions, they cannot hold this property in their own names, because of the
very great  embarrassments to which those changes  must give  rise; for
which reason, it has been vested in, and is now held by, two of their friends
for the benefit of their institution; that the untimely death of these indivi-
duals, without making the necessary dispositions on the subject, and the
difficulty of finding a succession of suitable depositaries for such a trust,
must expose the petitioners to great embarrassment, and even to the loss of
their property; while the danger and fear of similar embarrassments and
inconveniences may, and probably do, prevent other charitable persons, fa-
vorably disposed towards the objects of their  institution, from making to
them such donations within proper limits, as to value and amount, as would
enable them to become more extensively useful; for which inconveniences
they are advised, that a proper and adequate  remedy cannot be afforded,
without an act of General Assembly, constituting them a body corporate,
with perpetual succession, and such powers and privileges for taking, hold-
ing, and  disposing of  property, as may be judged adequate and proper:
And whereas, the facts set forth in said petition, appear to be  true, and
the prayer thereof is reasonable and proper:
   Be it therefore enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland, that the
said Elizabeth A. Seton, Elizabeth Boyle, Cecilia O. Conway, Jane Smith,
Rosetta  White, Margaret George, Bridget Farrell,  Mary Ann Butler,
Frances Jourdan,  Susanna Closey, Teresa Conway, Jane Francis Gart-
land, Eleanor Angela Brady, Ann Gruber, Adele Salva, Elizabeth Mag-
dalene  Guerin,  Sarah Thompson, Camilla  Corish, Margaret  Felicity
Brady, Scholastica Beams, Julia Shirk, Louisa Roger, and their successors
hereafter, to become Sisters of  Charity of St. Josephs, according to the
rules and regulations of their  association, for the time being, shall  be
and hereby are, constituted a body corporate, by the name and style  of The
Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's, with perpetual  succession, and power to
sue and be sued, and to have and use a common seal, and to take and hold,
in fee simple or otherwise, the farm in Frederick  county, in this State, on
which they now dwell, and any other lands and real estate, and any person-
al or mixed estate, to sell, lease, dispose of, and convey, in as full and am-
ple a manner as any person or body corporate holding any lands or proper-
ty, real,  personal, or mixed, may  sell,  lease, dispose of, and convey the
same; and to collect and receive the rents, profits, proceeds and  emolu-
ments of all property by them so held or possessed, and apply the same to
the use of their said association, according to the rules and regulations es-
tablished from time to time for the government thereof: Provided always,
that they shall not at  any time hold, use, possess, and enjoy,  either by
legal seisure or trust, for their benefit, more than eight hundred acres of
land, nor shall their personal estate at any time exceed in value the sum
of fifty thousand  dollars.
  Copied from the 6th vol. of the Laws  of Maryland, in  the 95th Chap.
Charles Ridgely,  Esq.  of Hampton, Governor.       ^g^^kTuSS^
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