WARRENTON ACADEMY, 1786
An act for erecting an academy at the town of Warrenton, in the district of Halifax.
Whereas it is necessary especially in republican governments, to hold forth every possible opportunity and encouragement to liberal education:
I.  Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that an academy he erected and established for the education of youth, under the name, stile and title of the Warrenton Academy.
II.  And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the Reverend Henry Patillo, William R. Davie, Benjamin Hawkins, William Johnson, Nathaniel Macon, Philemon Hawkins, William Duke, Edward Jones, James Miller, Philemon Hawkins, jun. of Granville, John Macon, Wyatt Hawkins, Thomas Person, Thomas Eaton; William Green, John Hawkins, James Johnson, James Gloster Brehon, Nicholas Long and Willie Jones, Esquires, and they and their successors to be elected in manner herein after directed, shall for ever be a body politic and corporate in deed and in name, by the title of the trustees of Warrenton Academy, and by the same name they and their successors shall and may have perpetual succession, and be able in law to receive, take, and enjoy to them and their successors, lands, tenements, rents and hereditaments of any kind, nature, quality or value, in fee; and also estates for lives and for years, and all sums of money, goods, chattels and things whatsoever, of any nature, quality or value, for building, erecting and supporting the said academy, paying salaries to the president, professors and tutors thereof; and by the same name they and their successors shall and may be able to implead and be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, defend and be defended, in all courts and places, and before all Judges and Justices whatsoever in all actions, pleas, plaints, and demands, and to grant, bargain, sell or assign any lands, hereditaments, goods tenements or chattels and to act and do all things whatsoever for the use aforesaid, in as full and ample manner and form as any natural person or body politic or corporate can or may by law: that they shall and may have a common seal for the business of them and their successors, with liberty to change, break, alter or make new the same from time to time as they shall think proper.
III.  And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that the said trustees or any seven of them, shall have full power and authority to meet at all times when they shall think proper at Warrenton aforesaid, to deliberate, resolve upon and carry into effect the laws and regulations to be by them made for the government of the said academy and shall have full power to fill up any vacancies which may happen in the said incorporated body of trustees, by the death, refusal to act, resignation or removal out of the state of any of its members; and the persons appointed to fill such vacancies shall be and they are hereby declared to have the same power and privileges as the trustees named in and by this act.
IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the said trustees or a majority of them, be and they are here by authorized and impowered to convene at Warrenton at any time after the passing of this act, and then and there elect and constitute by commission in writing under their hands, or the hands of a majority of them, and sealed with the common seal of the corporation, a proper person to preside at the said academy, who shall be a trustee during his continuance in office, and vested with the same powers, privileges and authorities as any trustee named in and by this act; and such president and the trustees or their successors, or any seven of them, at all other times thereafter when met together in the said town of Warrenton, shall have full power and authority to elect and constitute one or more professors or tutors, a secretary, treasurer and steward; and also to make and ordain such laws, give certificate to such students as shall leave the said academy, certifying their literary merit and progress they shall have made in useful knowledge, in general they shall and may do all such things as are usually done by bodies corporate and politic, or such as may be necessary for the promotion of learning and virtue. Provided, that they shall not on any account grant degrees or titles, such as batch-elor or master of arts, or doctor in any faculty.
V. And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that the said trustees or a majority of them are hereby authorized and declared to have power to remove or displace the president, professors or tutors, the secretary, treasurer or steward, or any of them if they shall find it necessary, and appoint others in their stead; and in case, of the death, refusal to act or resignation of the president, or any of the professors or tutors, the secretary, treasurer or steward, others shall be elected by the trustees in the room and stead of those dead, resigning or refusing to act.
VI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every treasurer appointed by the trustees aforesaid, shall previous to the entering upon his office, enter into bond in the sum of five thousand pounds payable to the trustees aforesaid, conditioned for the faithful discharge of his office and the trust reposed in him; and that all monies and chattels belonging to the said corporation, which shall be in his hands at the expiration of his office, shall then be immediately paid and delivered into the hands of his successor in office; and every treasurer shall receive all monies, donations, gifts, bequests and charities whatsoever, that may belong or accrue to the said academy during his office, and at the expiration thereof shall account with the trustees for the same; and on his refusal to pay and deliver to his successor as aforesaid the monies and chattels in his hands, the same mode of recovery shall and may be had against him, as is or may be had for the recovery of monies from the sheriffs or other   persons   chargeable with public monies.
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IX. And be it enacted, that nothing herein contained shall be constituted so as to make this one of the academies mentioned in the constitution of this State.
—Laws 1786, Chapter LXIV.
(Source: North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840, By Charles L. Coon 1914)