lyo FACTS RELATING TO GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 



Boston, Oct. lo, 1896. 



Dear Dr. Green, — The case of William Brigham and wife vs. 

 Samson Shattuck, as it appears in 10 Pickering's Reports, 306, was 

 thus : 



The will of Joseph Sawtell [sic], of Groton, executed in 1775, 

 contained these two provisions : " My will is and I do hereby give 

 and bequeath [devise] to the town of Groton forever, after the 

 decease of my wife, all the buildings and lands which I have hereto- 

 fore given her during her life, to use and improve forever, and 

 positively order that the same be not sold, but that they be rented 

 out, and the premises kept in good repair forever hereafter, and that 

 the overplus of the rents be annually applied towards the support 

 of the gospel minister in said town ; and this to be under the inspec- 

 tion and direction of the three senior selectmen by choice in said 

 town forever." 



" And as to the remainder of my estate, both real and personal, 

 and residue of the same not heretofore disposed of, my will is, and 

 I do hereby order my said executors, at their own option, to dis- 

 tribute the same to and among the poor of said town and church of 

 Groton, as I have heretofore been used to do." 



The widow of Joseph Sawtell died in 1790, and the town entered 

 into possession. Subsequently it procured an act of Legislature 

 authorizing the sale of the devised premises and the reinvestment 

 of the proceeds. The estate was sold to Job Shattuck, Jr., and 

 was by him conveyed to the tenant in 1821. This writ of entry was 

 brought in the right of the female demandant, niece and heir-at-law 

 of the testator, on the ground of forfeiture for breach of condition 

 in selling the same. The case was argued at October term, 1830, 

 in Middlesex, by Samuel Hoar for the demandants, and Daniel 

 Webster and Luther Lawrence for the tenant. No report of the 

 arguments is published. Chief Justice Shaw delivered the opinion 

 of the court, which held that the prohibition of any sale of the estate, if 

 a condition, was what we know in law as a condition subsequent ; that 

 a contingent reversionary interest capable of being devised would have 

 remained in the testator, but that he had devised this to his executor 

 by the second clause above quoted. Consequently no interest in the 

 estate descended to Mrs. Brigham, and she and her husband had no 

 standing in court. This rendered it unnecessary to decide the more 

 important questions which the case seemed to involve. It is, how- 



