TITLE IX.

Of Highways, Bridges and Ferries.

CHAPTER 43. Of laying out and making highways and driftways.
CHAPTER 44. Of repairing highways and bridges.

CHAPTER 45. Of certain bridges.

CHAPTER 46. Of guide boards.

CHAPTER 47. Of travelling on highways.

CHAPTER 48. Of ferries.

Highways declared such after twenty years'

SECTION

SECTION
25. Town not liable to repair highway so
acquired until declared such by the
town council.

SECTION

Discontinuance of highways.

26. Town councils may declare highways useless; consequences of such declaration; cannot alter highway laid out by general assembly.

Highways laid out by proprietors.

SECTION 1. The proprietors of lands in each and every town shall lay out suitable, necessary and convenient highways within their respective proprieties, from town to town, and to mills and markets, and generally wherever they may be wanted; and all highways duly laid out and approved by such proprietors, and recorded in their records, shall be good, binding and valid, as though laid out and established in any other manner whatsoever.

Highways laid out by town councils.

SEC. 2. The town councils of the several towns may order highways to be laid out, so far and through such part of their respective towns, as they may judge necessary.

SEC. 3. For the due marking out of any such highway, the town council shall appoint three suitable and indifferent men, not interested or concerned in the land through which such highway is to pass, who shall be sworn by the town council, or by the justice of the peace who shall be named to accompany them, for the faithful discharge of their trust.

the

SEC. 4. Said three men, being accompanied by one justice of peace and one constable, or the town sergeant of the town, to be named by the town council for that purpose, shall go to the place where such highway is ordered to begin, and from thence proceed to survey, bound and mark out a highway conformable to the direction of the town council; and they shall take care to lay it in such manner as may be most advantageous to the public, and as little as may be to the injury of the owners of the land through which it passes.

SEC. 5. They shall also agree with the owners for the damage they shall sustain, if any, by means of such highway passing through their lands; and in case they cannot agree with the owners, the town council shall value and appraise the damage, if any.

SEC. 6. They shall, after having laid out said highway as aforesaid, cause an exact draught or plan thereof to be made, which, together with the proper return of their whole doings in writing, under their hands and seals, shall be by them presented to the town council.

SEC. 7. The council thereupon shall cause notice to be given to all parties to appear before them if they shall see cause, and be heard for or against receiving the report; notice to parties, living without the state, shall be given by advertisement, three weeks successively, in some newspaper printed within the state.

SEC. 8. The council shall, after the hearing, proceed to receive or reject the report, as to them shall appear just and right; and if the report be approved and received, they shall cause the same to be recorded, and the highway to be established and laid open, by removing all buildings, fences and other impediments therein, which shall be done by the town sergeant or constable of the town, under a warrant from the town council to him directed for that purpose.

SEC. 9. The several town councils are empowered to lay out driftways in their respective towns, in such places and of such widths as they shall think necessary, as fully as by law they are empowered to lay out highways.

SEC. 10. Driftways shall be laid out in the same manner, and under the same regulations, in every respect, as highways; the damage shall be ascertained in the same manner as in laying out highways.

SEC. 11. The town council may order and direct who shall be at the charge of maintaining gates and bars where any driftway shall be laid out, and also whether the same shall be furnished with gates or bars.

SEC. 12. If any person, through whose land a highway or driftway is laid, shall be aggrieved by the doings of the committee or town council, he may appeal to the next court of common pleas to be holden for the county; giving bond to the town to prosecute his appeal, and producing an attested copy of the whole proceedings to such court and filing his reasons of appeal with the clerk of the court, ten days before the sitting thereof.

SEC. 13. Such appeal shall be tried with or without a jury, in the same manner as other causes pending in said court, and the judgment of said court shall be final therein except as to matters of law, which may by either party be brought before the supreme court, in the same manner, and with like effect, as is provided in cases of which the court of common pleas have exclusive original cognizance without appeal.

SEC. 14. The charges for laying out any highway or driftway, and all such damages as shall be agreed for or adjudged to any person through whose land such highway or driftway is laid, either by the committee, town council or court, shall be paid by the town treasurer of the town in which the highway or driftway is laid; and if he shall refuse or neglect to pay the same, an action may be brought and maintained for such money, by the person to whom the same is due and payable.

SEC. 15. The town councils of the several towns shall have full power and authority, in manner as aforesaid, to lay out new highways instead of any which they shall judge to be inconvenient or useless.

Highways declared such after twenty years' use.

SEC. 16. All lands which have or shall be quietly, peaceably and actually used and improved, and considered as public highways or

streets, for the space of twenty years, and which shall be declared by the town council of the town wherein they lie, to be public highways, shall be taken and considered as public highways to all intents and purposes, as fully and effectually as if the same had been regularly laid out, recorded and opened by the town council of the town where such lands may lie.

SEC. 17. It shall be the duty of every town council before they proceed to act under the provisions of the next preceding section, to give personal notice of their intention to all persons interested, or who may have any claim to the land over which such highway passes, as described in said section, if known to reside in this state; and if not known, or if known to reside without the state, then by an advertisement to be inserted in one or more public newspapers printed within the state, for three weeks successively, to the intent that all persons interested may have an opportunity to show cause why such proceedings as are authorized as aforesaid, should not be had.

SEC. 18. In all cases, any person who shall be aggrieved by such proceedings, shall have liberty to appeal therefrom to the next court of common pleas within the county in which such highway lies; first giving bond and filing reasons of appeal in the manner provided and required in the twelfth section of this chapter, whereupon like proceedings shall be had, in all respects, as is, in said twelfth and thirteenth sections hereof, provided.

SEC. 19. In declaring lands, which have been quietly, peaceably, and actually used and improved, and considered as public highways and streets, for the space of twenty years, to be public highways as aforesaid, the town council of the town in which such lands lie, shall determine, mark out, plat, or cause to be marked out and platted the lands, in width as well as length, by such use and improvement appropriated as public highways, and declared as such; and shall cause said plats to be recorded: but nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect the requirements or provisions of the next preceding section.

SEC. 20. If any lands, used and improved for twenty years and upwards as a public highway or streef, shall not, in the judgment of the town council, be wide enough for the necessities or convenience of the public, the town council may proceed to widen the said highway, in whole or in part, pursuing, as to the portion so widened, the steps required by law for laying out new highways.

SEC. 21. In case any lands have heretofore been declared to be a public highway, under the sixteenth section of this chapter, and no such plat was made and recorded as aforesaid, the town council may cause the lands, appropriated by such declaration as a public highway, to be marked out, platted, and recorded as aforesaid, in which case they shall give the notice, and their proceedings shall be subject to the appeal above provided.

SEC. 22. The proceedings before the town council under the six sections next preceding, in so far as said proceedings shall not have been set aside on appeal taken as above provided, with the accompanying plat, or duly certified copies thereof, shall forever

thereafter be conclusive evidence upon the town, and all parties notified, and their privies, as to the existence of the highway, in width and length, as platted, and primâ facie evidence thereof as to all others.

Land conveyed by deed for highways.

SEC. 23. Whenever the owner of any land shall make a deed thereof to the town wherein such land lies, for the especial purpose of being used and improved as a public highway, and the deed shall have been duly acknowledged and recorded, the land shall be thenceforward a public highway to all intents and purposes; and be liable to be opened by the town council of the town wherein the same shall lie, in the same manner as highways which are laid out by said town council; but no town shall be liable to repair such highway until the town council thereof shall decree and order that the same shall be repaired at the expense of such

town.

Land dedicated to highways and other purposes.

SEC. 24. Nothing in this chapter contained shall be construed to hinder or prevent the public from acquiring, by dedication or user, lands or any interest in lands for highways or other public uses, according to the course of the common law, or to take away or abridge any legal or equitable remedy by the common or the general law provided in case of injuries to, or obstructions to the enjoyment of lands, or any interest in lands thus or otherwise by law acquired by the public, or devoted to public uses, whether such remedy be by indictment, information, bill or otherwise.

SEC. 25. Nothing in the preceding section contained shall be construed to render any town liable for the mending and repairing of any highway, unless the same shall have been declared to be a public highway by the town council of the town wherein it lies.

Discontinuance of highways.

SEC. 26. Whenever any road shall cease to be useful to the public, the town council of such town shall be authorized so to declare it; and the said road shall revert to its owner; and the said town shall not be liable any longer to repair the same; but no town council shall have power to alter or change any highway which has been or hereafter shall be laid out by the general assembly.

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