so 
I N F 
underftanding and judgment. For one lad of eleven years 
old may have as much cunning as another at fourteen 5 
and in thefe cafes our maxim is, that malitia fupplet atatem. 
Under I'even years of age indeed an infant cannot be guilty 
of felony; Mir. c. 4. § 16. 1 Hal. P. C. 27. Plowd. 19. for 
then, by prefumption in law, he cannot have difcretion; 
and, in fadt, a felonious difcretion is almoft an impoffibi- 
iity in nature, and no averment fball be received againft 
that prefumption; but at eight years old he may be guilty 
of felony; Dalt. Juf. c. 147. Alfo, under fourteen, though 
an infant fhall be prima facie adjudged to be doli incapax ; 
yet, if it appear to the court and jury that he was doli ca- 
fax, and could difcern between good and evil, he may be 
convidted and fuffer death. Thus a girl Of thirteen has 
been burnt for killing her miftrefs; and one boy of ten 
and another of nine years old, who had killed their com¬ 
panions, have been fentenced to death, and he of ten years 
was actually hanged, becaule it appeared upon their trials, 
that the one hid himfelf, and the other hid the body he 
had killed; which hiding manifelted a confcioufnefs of 
guilt, and a difcretion to difcern between good and evil. 
1 Hal. P. C. 26, 7. And there was once an inftance, where 
a boy ©f eight years old was tried at Abingdon for firing 
two barns; and, it appearing that he had malice, revenge, 
and cunning, he was found guilty, condemned, and hanged 
accordingly. Einlyn on 1 Hal. P. C. 25. Thus alfo, at the 
affixes for Bury, in the year 1748, one William York, a 
boy of ten years old, was convidted on his own confeffion 
of murdering his bed-fellow ; there appearing in his whole 
behaviour plain tokens of a inifchievous difcretion; and, 
as fparing this boy merely on account of his tender years 
might be of dangerous confequence to the public, by pro¬ 
pagating a notion that children might commit fuch atro¬ 
cious crimes with impunity, it was unanimoufly agreed 
by all the judges, that he was a proper fubjedt of capital 
punifhment. Fofler, 72. But, in all fuch cafes, the evi¬ 
dence of that malice, which is to fupply age, ought to be 
ftrong and clear beyond all doubt and contradidtion. 
4 Comm. 22, 24. 
The privilege or incapacity of infancy does not extend 
to the king ; for the political rules of government have 
thought it neceifary, that he who is to govern the whole 
kingdom fhould never be confidered as a minor, incapa¬ 
ble of governing himfelf and his affairs. Co. Lit. 43. Dyer 
209. b. Therefore, if the king wdthin age make any leafe 
or grant, he is bound prefently, and cannot avoid them, 
either during his minority or when he comes of full age. 
Plowd. 213. a. 5 Co. 27, 7 Co. 12. So, if the king aliens 
land which he had by defcent from his mother, he fhall 
not defeat it by reafon that he was within age at the time 
of the alienation ; for his body politic, which is annexed 
to his body natural, takes away the imbecility of the na¬ 
tural body, and draws it, and all the effedfs thereof, to it- 
felf; quia magis dignum trahit adfe minus dignum. See Plowd. 
213, 34. So if the king confent to an adt of parliament 
during his minority, yet hd cannot after avoid this adt; 
becaule the king, as king, cannot be a minor; for as king 
he is a body politic. Co. Lit. 43. 1 Roll. Abr. 728. 
Alfo the adts of a mayor and commonalty fhall not be 
avoided by reafon of the nonage of the mayor. Cro. Car. 
557. 5 Co. 27. 
Although a duke, earl, or thd like, be but a minor, or 
not above ten years of age, in the cuftody and in the fa¬ 
mily of another nobleman, who may and doth retain chap¬ 
lains, yet he may qualify chaplains to hold two benefices 
with cure, as if he was of full age. 4 Co. 119. 
An infant in ventre fa mere, or in the mother’s womb, 
is fuppofed in law to be born for many purpol'es. It is 
capable of having a legacy, or, a furrender of a copyhold 
eftate made to it. It may have a guardian affigned to it ; 
and it is enabled to have an eftate limited to its ufe, and 
to take afterwards by fuch limitation, as if it were then 
adtually born. Slat. 10 (3 11 W. III. c. 16. 1 Comm. 130. 
Alfo, a child in ventre fa mere may be appointed executor; 
alfo if there are two or more at a birth, they fhall be joint 
ANT. 
executors, or joint legatees of the thing bequeathed. Go- 
dolph. Orph. Leg. 102. It feems agreed, that a man may 
furrender copyhold lands immediately to the ufe of an in¬ 
fant in ventre fa mere ; for a furrender is a thing execu¬ 
tory, and nothing vefts before admittance; and therefore, 
if there be a perfon to take at the time of the admittance, 
it is fufficient, and not like a grant at common law, which 
putting the eftate out.of the grantor muft be void, if there 
be nobody to take. 1 Roll. Rep. 109, 138. 2 Bu/Jl. 273. Co. 
Copyh. 9. and fee Moor 637. _ 
An infant in ventre fa mere may have a diftributive fhare 
of inteftate property even with the half blood. 1 Vef. 8r. 
It takes, under a marriage-fettlement, a provifion made 
for children living at the death of the father, r Vef. 85. 
And it has lately been decided, that marriage, and the 
birth of a pofthumous child, amount to a revocation of a 
will executed previous to the marriage. 5 Term. Rep. 49. 
It takes land by defcent, though, in that cafe, the pre- 
fumptive heir may enter and receive the profits for his 
own ufe till the birth of the child, which feems to be the 
only intereft it lofes by its fituation. 3 Wilf. 526. See the 
article Descent, vol. v. 
An infant, it feems, is capable of fuch offices as do not 
concern the adminiftration of juftice, but only require 
(kill and diligence; and there he may either exercile them 
himfelf when of the age of difcretion, or they may be ex- 
ercifed by deputy ; fuch as the offices of park-keeper, fo- 
refter, gaoler, &c. Plowd. 379, 381. 9 Co. 48, 97. But it 
is faid, that an infant is not capable of the ftewardfhip of 
a manor, or of the ftew’ardfhip of the courts of a bifhop ; 
becaufe by intendment of law he hath not fufficient know¬ 
ledge, experience, and judgment, to ufe the office, and 
alfo becaufe he cannot make a deputy. An infant can- 
‘notbean attorney, bailiff, fadtor, or receiver. F.N.B. 118. 
1 Rol. Abr. 117. Co. Lit. 172. Cro. Eliz. 637. An infant 
cannot exercile an office in a corporation. Hardur. 8, 9. 
An infant cannot be a common informer; for flat. 18 
Eliz. c. 5, diredts that fuch fhall fue in proper perfon, or 
by attorney, which an infant cannot do. Bull. N. P. 196. 
As to infants being witneffes, there feems to be no fixed 
time in which children are excluded from giving evidence; 
but it will depend in a great meafure on the fehfe and 
underftanding of the child, as it fhall appear on exami¬ 
nation in court. Bull. N. P. 293. And, where they are 
admitted, concurrent teftimony feems peculiarly defirable. 
4 Comm. 214. 
If an infant, being mafter of a fliip at St. Chriftopher’s 
beyond fea, by contradt with' another undertakes to carry 
certain goods from St. Chriftopher’s to England, and there 
to deliver them ; but does not afterwards deliver them 
according to agreement, but waftes and conlumes them ; 
he may be fued for the goods in the court of admiralty, 
though he be an infant; for this fuit is but in nature of 
a detinue, or trover and converfion at the common law. 
1 Rol. Abr. 530. Yet, if an infant keeps a common inn, 
an adtion on the cafe upon the cuftorn of inns will not lie 
againft him. 1 Rol. Abr. 2. Carth. 161. So, if an infant 
draws a bill of exchange, yet he fhall not be liable on the 
cuftorn of merchants, but he may plead infancy in the 
fame manner that he may to any other contract of his. 
Carth. 160. Or he may in this, as in all cafes, give it in 
evidence on the general iflue; but the faireft way is to 
plead it. Bull. N. P. 152. An infant cannot be a juror. 
Hob. 325. 
An infant, or one under the age of twenty-one years, 
cannot be e]edted a member of the houfe of r common3; 
nor can any lord of parliament fit there until he be of the 
full age of twenty-one years. 2 hjl. 47. 
If an infant be lord of a manor, he may grant copy- 
holds, notwithftanding his nonage ; for thefe eltates do 
not take their perfedtion from the intereft or ability of 
the lord to grant, but from the cuftorn of the manor by 
which they have been demifed, and are demifable, time out 
of mind. An infant may prefent to a church ; and here 
it is faid, that this muft be done by himfelf, of whatfoever 
age 
