EXE 
personally responsible for the due discharge 
of his duty ; if, therefore, the property of 
the deceased be lost, or through his wilful 
negligence become otherwise irrecoverable, 
he will be liable to make it good ; and also 
where he retains money in his hands longer 
than is necessary, he will be chargeable not 
only with the interest but costs, if any have 
been incurred. 
But one executor shall not be answerable 
for money received, or detriment occasioned 
by the other, unless it has been by some act 
done between them jointly. An executor 
or administrator has the same, remedy for 
recovering debts and duties, as the deceased 
would have had if living. N either an executor 
nor administrator can maintain any action 
for a personal injury done to the deceased, 
when such injury is of such a nature for 
which damages may be received ; in actions, 
however, which have their origin in breach of 
promise, although the suit may abate by the 
death of the party, yet it may be revived ei- 
ther by his executors or administrators, who 
may also sue for rent in arrear, and due to 
the deceased in his life-time. By the custom 
of merchants, an executor or administrator 
may indorse over a bill of exchange, or pro- 
missory note. An executor or administra- 
tor may also, on the death of a lessee for 
years, assign over the lease, and shall not 
be answerable for rent after such assign- 
ment, nor shall he be liable for rent due af- 
ter the lessee’s death, from premises which 
in his life-time he had assigned to another. 
An executor, or administrator, is bound 
only by such covenants in a lease, as are 
said to run with the land. The executor, 
or administrator, previous to the distribu- 
tion of the property of the deceased, must 
take an inventory of all his goods and chat- 
tels, which must, if required, be delivered 
to the ordinary upon oath. He must then 
collect, with all possible convenience, all 
the goods and effects contained in such an 
inventory; and whatever is so recovered 
that is of a saleable nature, and can be con- 
verted into money, is termed assets, and 
makes him responsible to such amount to 
the creditors, legatees, and kindred of the 
deceased. 
The executor, or administrator, having 
collected in the property, is to proceed to 
discharge the debts of the deceased, which 
he must do according to the following pri- 
orities, otherwise he will be personally re- 
sponsible. 1. Funeral expences, charges 
of proving the will, and other expenditures 
incurred by the execution of his trust. 
EXE 
2. Debts due to the King on record, or by 
speciality. $. Debts due by particular sta- 
tutes, as by 30 Geo. II. c. 23; forfeitures 
for not burying in woollen, money due for 
poor-rates, and money due to the post of- 
fice. 4. Debts of record, as judgments, 
statutes, recognizances, and those recog- 
nized by a decree of a court of equity, and 
debts due on mortgage. 5. Debts on spe- 
cial contract, as bonds or other instra-, 
ments under seal ; and also rent in arrear. 
6. Debts on simple contract, viz. such as 
debts arising by mere verbal promise, or by 
writing not under seal, as notes of hand, 
servants’ wages, &c. 
The executor is bound at his peril to take 
notice of debts on record, but not of other 
special contracts, unless he receives notice. 
If no suit be actually commenced against 
an executor, or administrator, he may pay 
one creditor in equal degree the whole 
debt, though there should be insufficient 
remaining to pay the rest ; and even after 
the commencement of a suit, he may, by 
confessing judgment to other creditors of 
the same degree, give them a preference. 
Executors and administrators are also al- 
lowed, amongst debts of equal degree, to 
pay themselves first ; but they are not al- 
lowed to retain their own debt to the pre- 
judice of others in a higher degree ; neither 
shall they be permitted to retain their own 
debts, in preference to that of their co-exe- 
cutor, or co-administrator, of equal degree, 
but both shall be charged in equal propor- 
tion. A mortgage made by the testator 
must be discharged by the representative 
out of the personal estate, if there be suffi- 
cient to pay the rest of the creditors and 
legatees: where such mortgage, however, 
was not incurred by the deceased, it is not 
payable out of the personal estate. 
Executory devise, is defined a future 
interest, which cannot vest at the death of 
a testator, but depends upon some contin- 
gency, which must happen before it can 
vest : it is called so to distinguish it from a 
remainder from which it differs in being 
less strictly restrained by technical rules. 
EXEGESIS, a discourse by way of ex- 
planation or comment upon any subject. 
EXEMPLIFICATION of letters 'patent, 
a transcript or duplicate of them, made 
from the inrolment thereof, and sealed with 
the great seal. These exemplifications are 
by statute equally effectual, and may be 
pleaded as well as the originals. One may 
exemplify a patent under the great seal in 
Chancery ; also any record, or judgment, 
