I. Whereas, the school house heretofore established under the before recited Act has answered very valuable purposes, but in the course of the late war, by the death and removal of many of the trustees, and from other unavoidable accidents, the building is much impaired, and the education of youth neglected;

II. Be it therefore Enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina, and it is hereby Enacted by the authority of the same, That from and after the passing of this Act the said school shall be distinguished and known by the name of the New Bern Academy; and that the Honourable Richard Caswell and Abner Nash, Esquires, John Wright Stanley, William Blount, John Sitgraves, Spyres Singleton, William McClure, William Bryan and Richard Dobbs Spaight, Esquires, be, and they are hereby appointed trustees and directors of the said academy, and shall be and they are hereby incorporated into a body politic and corporate by the name of the Incorporated Society, for promoting and establishing the New Bern Academy, by which name they shall have perpetual succession, and a common seal, which they may alter or amend at discretion, and under the aforesaid name they and their successors shall be able and capable in law to have, purchase, receive, possess and retain to them and their successors forever in trust and confidence for the said academy, any lands, rents, tenements and hereditaments, and also to sell, grant, demise, alien or dispose of the same, and to receive and take any charity gift or donation to the said academy; and the said trustees and their successors by the aforesaid name may sue and implead, be sued and impleaded, answer and be answered in all courts of record within this State, and shall from time to time under their common seal, make such rules, regulations and ordinances for the admission or dismission of the several masters and teachers in the said academy, and for the better regulating and well ordering of the same as to them shall seem requisite and necessary for the promotion of learning and virtue: Provided such rules and ordinances be not repugnant to the laws of the State.

III. And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the several lots of land, together with their improvements, granted by the before-recited Act to the trustees of the public school in New Bern in trust and confidence be, and the same are hereby vested in the trustees and directors by this Act appointed, and their successors forever, in trust and confidence to and for the uses and purposes by this Act intended.

IV. And, whereas, there are in the town of New Bern four lots of land known in the plan of the said town by the numbers two hundred and forty-eight, two hundred and forty-nine, two hundred and fifty and two hundred and fifty-one, which were granted by the commissioners of the said town to John Starkey, Edward Griffith and Jeremiah Vail, by deed bearing date the seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and fifty, in trust and confidence for the use of the public forever, and are declared to be saved lots and reserved as aforesaid by an Act passed at New Bern in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one; and the uses and purposes for which the said lots were reserved having no longer any existence, Be it therefore Enacted by th authority aforesaid, That three of the aforesaid lots, to-wit: Those known in the plan of the said town by the numbers two hundred and forty-nine, two hundred and fifty and two hundred and fifty-one, shall be, and they are hereby declared to be vested in the aforesaid trustees and directors and their successors forever, any law to the contrary notwithstanding; and the lot known in the plan of the town by the number two hundred and forty-eight whereon the public gaol now stands, is hereby reserved for the use of the public as directed by the before recited Act.

V. And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the trustees of the said academy, or a majority of them, shall at their first meeting, and thence after annually appoint out of their number a president and a secretary, and a fit and proper person to be treasurer to the said society, who shall enter into bond with good and sufficient security in a competent sum to be adjudged of by the directors for the faithful discharge of his office and the trust reposed in him, into whose hands shall be paid all monies of or belonging to the said academy, and for which the said treasurer shall account annually with the directors, and upon his refusal or neglect to settle and pay the balance remaining in his hands to the succeeding treasurer or the order of the directors, the same method of recovery may be had against him as is provided for the recovery of public monies in the hands of sheriffs or other persons.

VI. And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That on the death, refusal to act, or removal out of the State of any of the trustees, the remaining trustees or a majority of them shall elect other trustees in the room and stead of those dead, removed or refusing to act, who shall be invested with the same powers and authorities as the other trustees and directors appointed by this Act.

VII. And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the trustees shall appoint public visitations of the academy once in every six months, when they shall examine what progress is made by the several students and grant certificates to such as shall leave the academy, certifying their literary merit and the progress they shall have made in useful knowledge, whether it be in learned languages, arts or sciences, or all of them: Provided always, That they shall not on any pretence grant degrees or titles, such as the degree of batchelor or master of arts, or doctor in any faculty.

VIII. And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the trustees shall not in any case sell lands or dispose of the monies belonging to the academy unless a majority of the society is present or at their stated half yearly visitations; and that no rector, professor or tutor in the said academy shall at any time be chosen a trustee thereof, but that his Excellency the Governor of the State for the time being may at any of their visitations take a seat in the society.

IX. And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the rector, professors and tutors of the said academy shall be exempted from military duty: Provided, That no person shall claim such exemption unless he has been at least six months a stated tutor, rector or professor in the academy, and continues in that duty.

X. And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the trustees by this Act appointed shall have full power and authority to demand, receive and recover from all persons whatsoever all monies, rents, goods or other effects of what nature or kind soever due, owing or belonging to the late public school aforesaid, and to dispose of and apply the same as is by this Act directed.

XI. And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to prevent the trustees from distinguishing their public hall, museum or library, by the names of such persons or societies as may within two years from the passing of this Act give the most liberal donations to the academy.

XII. And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That so much of the two before recited Acts as is repugnant to or come within the purview of this Act be, and the same is hereby repealed and made void to all intents and purposes as if the same had never been made: Provided, That this academy shall not be deemed to be one of those seminaries of learning directed by the constitution of this State to be established and supported by public authority.