APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



255 



them ? or at what period he made 

 such acknowledgment ? 



Find, That the said Earl put 

 his name to the deeds under re- 

 duction, in presence of one in- 

 strumentary witness, viz. Alex. 

 Forteith Williamson : but it is not 

 proven that the said Earl did ac- 

 knowletlge his subscription to 

 George Wilson, the odier instru- 

 mentaiy witness. 



6th. Whether the said Earl 

 was, until the dates of the deeds 

 under reduction, or at a later pe- 

 riod, a man remarkably attentive 

 to, and in the use of transacting 

 every sort of business connected 

 with his estates, and in the prac- 

 tice and habit of executing, and in 

 fact did execute, deeds of all sorts 

 connected with his own a|Iairs, by 

 subscribing the same with his own 

 hand, and ^^^thout the interven- 

 tion of notaries } 



Find, Proven in the affirmative. 



rth. Whether the said Earl 

 took means to ascertain that the 

 deeds under reduction, alleged to 

 have been signed by him, ^vere 

 conform to the scrolls of deeds 

 prepared by his agents imder his 

 special direction, and what were 

 the means he took to ascertain the 

 same? 



Find, That the only means 

 which the said Earl took to ascer- 

 tain that the deeds under reduc- 

 tion' were conform to the Scrolls 

 or deeds prepared by his agents, 

 under his special directions, were 

 •his having heard the deeds read 

 'i&ver to him. i 



'»' The Gentlemen of the ^Jury 

 were allowed to go home each 

 Wight by consent of the partiei. 



' ' Prerogative Court, Doctors' Gom- 

 ■1Ho««. — Gtencrosa and Little, v. 



Underhill and others. — This was a 

 suit as to the validity of the will 

 of John Johns, of Ilfracombe, in 

 the county of Devon, deceased. 

 Me died on the 20th of December, 

 1815, possessed of about 80001. 

 personal property, and leaving 

 two natural children, and several 

 cousins, his nearest relatives. He 

 left two testamentary papers. The 

 first of them, No. 1 , was a regu- 

 larly executed will, dated the 4th 

 of September, 1801. By this 

 will he made a provision for the 

 mother of his children, and, after 

 some pecuniary legacies, gave the 

 bulk of his property to his two' 

 natural children, and appointed 

 Messrs. Glencross and Birt, two 

 particular friends of his, exe- 

 cutors ; but there was written 

 across the back of it the words 

 "Cancelled, and another made 

 out." The paper No. 2, was the 

 draft of a will prepared for the de- 



• ceased from instructions, in Feb- 



• Jfuaiy, 1805, but never executed. 

 It gave away a greater sum in 

 legacies than the prior will, but 

 disposed of the residue in the 

 same manner between the de- 

 ceased's two children, and ap- 

 pointed the same executors. No.l. 

 was propounded on the part of 

 the children by Messrs. Glencross 

 and Little, as their guardians (the 

 executors having renounced), and 

 opposed by Mr. Ambrose Bowden 

 Johns, pne of the cousins, con- 

 tending for an intestacy, upon 

 the gfoomd of the cancellation of 

 No. 1, and the non-execution of 

 No. 2. It appeared from the evi- 

 dence that the deceased was former- 

 ly first clerk to the Commissioner 

 of His Majesty's dock-yard at Ply- 

 mouth, and resided there with 

 his mother, but was superannu- 

 ated 



