In 1743 settlers in Portland were granted the same privileges as persons settling at Manchioneal and Norman’s Valley in St. Thomas-in-the-East, by Act 9 Geo. 2, that is; their passages were paid and that of their slaves not exceeding twenty, and the receiver-general was to subsist them and their slaves for twelve months on the following scale: each white person, four barrels of beef and 400 lb. of biscuit or bread; each slave a barrel of herrings and 400 lb. of biscuit or bread—the number of slaves not exceeding twenty. Every settler was entitled to a grant of land: for himself, thirty acres; for his wife, fifty acres; for each child, twenty acres; for every other white, fifteen acres; for each slave, ten acres; not to exceed in the whole 300 acres. He was exempted from taxes for five years, but had to commence settlement within three months from the date of his patent. This Act was limited in its duration, and subsequently expired. Long tells us that under the inducements of the laws passed between 1736 and 1752, in sixteen years, one hundred and eight families and fifteen artificers were introduced into Portland and elsewhere at an expense of £17,898, but that many of them failed for lack of capital. In 1780 all the restrictions, conditions, penalties and forfeitures imposed on settlers by the several Acts from 1721 to 1776 having failed of their end, these Acts were repealed, and lands were to be held free from such restrictions, &c., and thereafter grants were to be made free therefrom—with a proviso excepting persons who had within four years before evaded the condition of their grants. From this date legislation with a view to settle the parish appears to have been discontinued, as no more Acts with that object are to be found in the statute book. In 1722 it was enacted that fifty acres at a certain place named Pattison’s Point and thirty acres on Ruther’s or Lynch’s Island should be allotted for a town, and that two hundred and fifty acres adjoining should be a common belonging to the said town or towns. [Illustration: PORT ANTONIO IN 1770 From an engraving ]