April, 1654
[18 April, 1654.]
Act of 5 Oct., 1653, and Ord. of 31 March, 1654, as to relief of creditors recited.; Operation further postponed.
Whereas in regard of many doubts arising upon an Act of the
late Parliament, An Act for the Relief of Creditors and poor
Prisoners, and several inconveniencies and mischiefs like to grow
from thence, not onely to the Creditors and Prisoners themselves,
but to divers other persons, without some explanation and further
direction to bee given to the several and respective Judges
authorized in and by the said Act; It is by an Ordinance of the
31 of March last, Ordeined, that the said several and respective
Judges should not proceed to sale or disposition, nor otherwise
intermeddle in the execution of the said Act, or of any the
Powers and authorities given by the same, untill the twentieth
day of April instant; and whereas the way for prevention of
those evils, and the better accomplishing the ends intended by
the said Act, is now under consideration, which will necessarily
require som longer time to perfect the same: Bee it Ordained
by His Highness the Lord Protector, by and with the consent of
his Council, That the said severall and respective Judges
mentioned in the said Act, or any of them, shall not proceed to
the sale or disposition of any of the estates real or personal, of
any or the said prisoners, or of any other person or persons what
soever, mentioned or intended in or by the said Act, nor shall
otherwise intermeddle in the execution of the said Act, or of any
the powers or authorities given by the same until the fifteenth
day of May next coming; And bee it further Ordeined, that all
Acts and things to bee don by the said several and respective
Judges, or any of them, by vertue, color, or pretence of the said
Act from henceforth and before the said fifteenth day of May
aforesaid (saving onely in such cases, and according to such
limitations, as by the said Ordinance they had power to do,
before the said twentieth day of April) shall be and are hereby
declared to bee utterly null and void.