XV. And that the value of all decedents estates may Inventory to be the better known, and an account thereof the more be returned to court, by justly kept, every person or persons being appointed ex'rs and executor or executors, administrator or administra- adm'rs. tors, of any, or part of any estate whatsoever, and having a certificate for obtaining probat, or commission of administration granted unto him, her, or them, for the same, shall, at the next court after the obtaining of such certificate, upon his, her, or their corporal oath, exhibit a true and perfect inventory, as far as in them lies, of all and every part of the estate whereof the executorship, or administration shall be to him, her, or them, committed: And if it so happen, that such a full and perfect inventory, as is directed, cannot be made in the time hereby mentioned, upon reasonable cause to them shewn, the court may allow such further time for exhibiting such inventory, as to them shall seem necessary. XVI. And the courts shall cause appraisements of all decedents estates to be made in money, as soon as Appraisements, how possible, by at least three good and lawful men upon to be made. oath, and in the same order, whereby the court shall order such appraisement; they shall also appoint the appraisers, and nominate one or more of the justices of their county, to administer an oath to the said appraisers, for their true and just valuing the estate, according to the best of their judgment, (which justices so nominated, or any one of them, shalt be and is hereby fully impowered to administer such oath;) and accordingly the same shall be held and deemed to be lawfully administred, and to enure and to take effect, as firm and valid in law, to the purposes mentioned. Every one of which said appraisers shall be paid thirty allowance. Appraiser's pounds of tobacco for every day he shall attend to make such appraisement. continued on XVII. And for peventing all disputes that may a- Servants and rise concerning the right of crops upon the ground, It slaves to be is hereby enacted and declared, That where any person plantation of or persons shall die intestate, whilst his crop of Indian decedent. Corn, Wheat, or other Grain, or Tobacco is on the ground, unfinished, or dying testate, shall not have otherwise directed, all and every servant and slave, employed in the said crop at the time of such decease, shall be continued on the plantations, and employed in the crop or crops respectively, until the five and twentieth assets. day of December then next coming; and that then the said crop shall be deemed and taken to be assets in the executors or administrators hands, to be valued by apCrops to be praisers to be appointed, in the same manner as they shall be for the other part of the deceased person's estate; any law, custom, or usage to the contrary, notwithstanding. And the slaves employed in the said crop, as aforesaid, shall, after the said five and twentieth day of December, be delivered to such person or persons to whom the same is declared to belong, by an act of assembly, made at a general assembly, begun at the capitol, the twenty-third day of October, in the Slaves, when year one thousand seven hundred and five, intituled, to be deliv. An act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, and Indian Slaves, within this Dominion to be Real Estate. ed to heir. Executor or adm'r not answerable XVIII. Provided always, and it is the true intent and meaning of this act, That no executor or adminis trator shall be answerable for the price of any negro, or other servant or slave, which shall happen to die befor slave dy fore the said twenty-fifth day of December, although ing. such negro, or other servant or slave, shall be put into the inventory of the deceased person's estate. When testator may direct his es tate not to be'appraised. When no se XIX. Provided always, That if any person shall hereafter depart this life, leaving an estate more than sufficient to pay all debts due from the same, such person shall and may have liberty to settle his or her estate by will, in such manner as he or she shall think fit; and may also direct, that the same shall not be appraised; and every such will shall be held valid, according to the true intent thereof: And the making a true inventory of the estate of such person, without proceeding to appraise the same, shall be held a sufficient compliance with this act. XX. Provided also, That if any person or persons curity may already departed this life hath, or any person or perbe required sons who shall hereafter depart this life, shall by will of executor. bequeath his or her estate to his or her children, and make them, or such of them as are of age, executors of such will; or bequeath his or her estate to the husband or wife, or to his wife and children, and make them, or either of them, as aforesaid, executors; or in case there be no husband, or wife, or children, such person dying, shall by will make any person or persons whatsoever his or her executor and residuary legatee, or where the testator shall by his will direct, that his executor or executors shall not be obliged to give security; in all or either of the aforesaid cases, no security shall be demanded of such executor or exccutors, nor of any person or persons, who shall by any testator be appointed executor or executors in trust, durante minori ætate of his children, where he shall by his will have made his said children executors, and ordered that his estate shall be preserved in kind, and the profits thereof redound to the benefit of such children at their coming of age; any thing in this act, to the contrary thereof, in any wise, notwithstanding. XXI. And provided likewise, That nothing herein Power of contained, shall be construed to abridge or restrain the ex'rs before probat not powers of executors over their testators estates, before, abridged. or until probat of the will, or commission of administration, with the will annexed, is obtained, as fully and amply, as if this act had never been made. main among XXII. And that the wills of persons deceased may be the better preserved, Be it enacted, That all original Wills to rewills shall remain in the clerk's office amongst the re- records, cords of the several respective counties, where they shall be proved, whereto any person, whose occasions. shall so require, may have recourse, as to the other records: except for the time it shall be removed by direction of any superior court. And that unto every probat, granted upon certificate from any court, there shall be annexed a true copy of the will whereupon such probat shall be granted. When gene ral courts may grant XXIII. Provided always, and it is hereby declared to where provbe the true intent and meaning hereof, That in all cases ed. testamentary, where the decedent shall have left estate, real or personal, of the value of fifty pounds sterling, or upwards, in divers counties within this colony, probats. it shall and may be lawful for the general court of this dominion, upon motion made to them by the executor or executors of such person dying testate, or by the person or persons who hath the right of administration of the estate of any person dying intestate, or whose exeecutors shall refuse to take upon them the trust, to take the proof of wills, and to hear and determine the right of administration, and thereupon to grant certificate for obtaining a probat or administration, or administration, with the will annexed, as the case is. And that in all cases where wills are exhibited to be proved in the general court, the court shall assign a certain day of the next succeeding general court, for proving the same; and shall direct summons to the heir or heirs at law, in the same manner as is directed for the county courts. And wherever proclamation is by this act made requisite, for summoning any heir or heirs, the general court shall cause such proclamation to be publicly affixed in their courthouse; and shall also cause proclamation to be made in the county where the testator died, after the same manner as is directed upon proving the will in the county court. XXIV. That all probats of wills, and commissions Howprobats, and adminis of administration, granted upon certificate obtained in trations from the general court, shall issue under the seal of the generalcourt colony, and shall be signed by the governor or com to issue. liable for ta mander in chief of this dominion, for the time being, or by the president of the council, for the time being, or by such member or members of the said court, as shall be commissionated for that purpose, by the governor, or president respectively. And that the forms of all oaths and bonds, required by this act of executors or administrators for the due discharge of their trust, shall be the same as is directed for the county courts, mutatis mutandis. XXV. Provided always, That where the general court When court shall grant certificate for obtaining the administration king insufli- of any estate, and shall fail to take sufficient security cient securi- for the same; in that case, the members of the said ty. Debts contracted by testator or court, granting such certificate, and every of them, shall be liable to pay such loss and damage, as shall accrue by reason of such failure, in the same manner as the justices of the county court in the like case should have been. XXVI. And forasmuch, as by this act, it is before directed, that all decedents estates shall be appraised in money; and for that it often happens, that several debts are contracted in this colony for certain quantities of tobacco, or other commodities in specie, which may sometimes be of greater or lesser value than ordinary, which may occasion disputes between executors or adininistrators, and the creditors of their testators, or intestates, concerning the payment of such debts: For prevention whereof, XXVII. Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if a debt, contracted by any person deceased, in tobacco, corn, wheat, beef, pork, or other kind of commodity, commodities shall be recovered by suit at law against his or her tate, payable executor or executors, administrator or administra- in specific tors, and there shall not, at the time of such re- when to be covery, be so much of the commodities so con- converted tracted for, belonging to such decedent's estate, in into money the hands of his or her executor or executors, ad- by the court: ministrator or administrators, or any of them; then, apon the motion of any such executor or administrator, against whom recovery shall be had, as aforesaid, and oath made, that there is not a sufficient quantity of the commodities so contracted for, belonging to the decedent's estate in the hands of any of the executors or administrators, to satisfy the debt so to be recovered in specie, the court, before whom such motion and oath shall be made, shall value the commodity contracted for, according to the best of their judgment, in money; and accordingly shall give judgment for the same, to be paid in money, (and not in specie,) out of the estate of the person deceased; any law, usage or custom, or any obligation, contract, or other matter or thing whatsoever, to the contrary thereof, in any wise, notwithstanding. to be returne XXVIII. And be it further enacted, That the clerk Lists of adof every county court, shall every half year, viz. in ministrations April and October, return to the secretary's office a with names list of all certificates for obtaining probats or adminis- of ex'rs, &c. trations granted in their respective counties, contain- ed half yearing the names of the testators or intestates, the execu- ly to secreta tors or administrators, and the names of the securities; ry's office. which lists the secretary of this colony is hereby required to cause to be recorded alphabetically in his office, in books kept for that purpose. XXIX. And be it further enacted, That all and eve- Repealing ry other act and acts, and every clause and article clause: thereof heretofore made, for so much thereof, as relates to any matter or thing whatsoever within the purview of this act, is and are hereby repealed and made void, to all intents and purposes, as if the same had never been made. D-Vol. 4. |