Any person committed as above provided, or who shall have given the bond specified in the eleventh section of this act, or against whom any suit shall have been commenced in a court of record in which such person, by the provisions of this act, cannot be arrested or imprisoned, may present a petition to the court of common pleas of the county in which he shall be imprisoned, or in which the said suit is pending, or to the judge thereof, praying that he may assign his property, and have the benefit of the provisions of this act.
39 P.S. § 286