Justices of the Peace may authorize constables and other peace officers to enter any house to search for stolen venison. Any person apprehending an offender or causing such to be convicted who is killed or wounded so as to lose an eye or the use of a limb shall receive 50 pounds. Any person buying suspect venison or skin of deer shall produce the seller or be punished the same as a deer killer: 30 pounds or, if he couldn't pay, one year in prison without bail and one hour in the pillory on market day. An offender who discloses his accomplices and their occupations and places of abode and discovers where they may be found and they are subsequently convicted, shall be pardoned.
Anyone stealing sheep or cattle or parts thereof is a felon and shall suffer death without benefit of clergy.
Persons who steal or aid in stealing any lead, iron bar, iron gate, palisade, or iron rail fixed to any house or its outhouses, garden, orchard, or courtyard is guilty of felony and may be transported for seven years. In 1756 also included was copper, brass, bell-metal, and solder; buyers and receivers; and mills, warehouses, workshops, wharves, ships, barges, and other vessels. Search warrants were authorized in case of suspicion. Officers and solicited buyers and receivers were required to take persons who at night were reasonably suspected of having or carrying such items, to an accounting before a Justice of the Peace. Also a notice was put in the newspaper for any owners to claim such. If the person did not give a satisfactory account of the items, he was guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by forfeiture of 2 pounds or prison up to one month for the first offense, 4 pounds or prison for two months for the second offense, and 6 pounds or prison for any subsequent offense (without bail). An officer or solicited buyer or receiver who did not take a suspect to a Justice of the Peace was punishable by the same penalties except the amounts of forfeiture were 1 pound, 2 pounds, and 4 pounds respectively. A felon who brought two buyers or receivers to justice was to be pardoned.
A description of any goods and the appearance of a rogue or vagabond or idle and disorderly person shall be advertised in a public paper for identification by the owner as stolen.
Pawning goods without consent of the owner is punishable by forfeiture of 20s. or hard labor for fourteen days with whipping there.
Maliciously destroying river banks resulting in lands being overflowed or damaged is a felony for which one shall suffer death without benefit of clergy. Later, transportation for seven years was made an alternative.
All persons pretending to be patent gatherers or collectors for prison gaols or hospitals and all fencers, bearwards, common players of interludes, minstrels, jugglers, and pretended gypsies, and those dressing like Egyptians or pretending to have skill in physiognomy, palm-reading, or like crafty science, or pretending to tell fortunes, and beggars, and all persons able in body who run away and leave their wives or children to the parish shall be deemed rogues and vagabonds. Apprehenders of such persons bringing them before a Justice of the Peace may be rewarded 2s. Any constable not apprehending such shall forfeit 10s. Persons wandering outside the place determined by a Justice of the Peace to be his settlement may be whipped on the back until it is bloody or sent to hard labor at a House of Correction. If he was dangerous and incorrigible, for instance as indicated by swearing falsely before a Justice of the Peace, he could suffer both punishments with the whipping being on three market days. If he escaped from the House of Correction, it was felony. If he has been absent for more than two years, he could be put out as an apprentice for seven years in the realm, in the colonies, or in a British factory beyond the seas. Included later were performers for gain from outside their parish of any play, tragedy, comedy, opera, farce or other entertainment of the stage, including performances in public places where wine, ale, beer, or other liquors are sold, or else forfeit 50 pounds. Exempted were performances authorized by the king in Westminster.
Unlicensed places of entertainment are deemed disorderly (like bawdy houses and gaming houses) because they increase idleness, which produces mischief and inconvenience. Persons therein may be seized by a constable. Persons keeping such a place shall forfeit 100 pounds. No licensed place of entertainment may be opened until 5:00 p.m.
Later there was an award of 5s. for apprehending a person leaving his wife and children to the parish, living idly, refusing to work at going rates, or going from door or placing themselves in the streets to beg. This includes begging by persons who pretend to be soldiers, mariners, seafaring men, or harvest workers. These rogues and vagabonds shall be sent to hard labor at a House of Correction for up to one month. The real soldiers, mariners, seafaring men, and harvest workers shall carry official documents indicating their route and limiting the time of such passage.
Persons pretending to be lame who beg are to be removed. If he comes back to beg, his back may be whipped until bloody. If a constable neglects this duty, he shall forfeit 10s.