Page:The English Reports v1 1900.pdf/1390

Liege not being hereby excluded, but to continue as before one of the said donees; and I do confirm every other part of my said will, not hereby altered.

The testator died in November 1731.

At the time the testator made his will and also at his death, his daughter Mary Ann Elizabeth, then the wife of Mr. John Lanove, had issue one daughter about six years old, also named Mary Ann Elizabeth, her only child, to whom the testator stood godfather, which granddaughter afterwards intermarried with the appellant, and died on the 19th of March 1748, having had issue by him four children, who all died infants; but three [367] of them survived her and Joyce, her last surviving child, died on the 29th of June 1752, being then an infant of about five years old; and all the children, as well as their mother, died in the lifetime of Mrs. Lanove, and all of them except Joyce, in the lifetime of Mr. Lanove.

In January 1749, the said John Lanove died, and his widow then becoming entitled by virtue of the will of Mr. Berrenger, to the interest of the residue of his estate, and the increase thereof for her life, exhibited her bill in the Court of Chancery, in her own name, and in the name of the said Joyce Thicknesse her granddaughter, against her father's executors, for an account of his personal estate, and the rents and profits of his real estate and that what had accrued due thereon before her husband's death might be placed out at interest pursuant to the will; and that the interest and income of what had accrued due since, or should thereafter accrue during her life, might be paid to her, and that the trusts of the will might be carried into execution, and the title deeds left with the Master; and that the then surviving executor Daniel Gobbe might be decreed to act, or assign his trust, and that proper directions might be given for carrying the trusts of the will into execution.

To this bill all the defendants put in their answers, and the cause being at issue was set down for hearing; but before it came on, the said Joyce Thicknesse the infant died, and the appellant having obtained administration to his said daughter, as also to his said late wife, Mrs. Lanove's daughter, and claiming, as such administrator, to be entitled to the residue of the testator's estate, expectant upon the death of Mrs. Lanove, as an interest vested in his wife, or daughter, and the respondents the donees named in the testator's will, claiming title to such residue expectant as aforesaid, in case Mrs. Lanove should die without leaving any child living at her death; she in March 1753, exhibited her supplemental bill, against the said Daniel Gobbe, and the executors of the deceased executor, and also against the appellant, and the persons named as donees in her father's will; thereby stating, as supplemental matter, the death of her granddaughter Joyce Thicknesse, and the claims of the appellant and the respondents the donees, as also the death of Charles Benjamin Jeffries, one of the original donees, without issue; and praying, that her rights and interests, and those of all other parties, if any, in or to her said late father's real and personal estates, might be established and determined, and secured to them; and that the title deeds, evidences, and writings concerning the same might be preserved for her benefit, and the benefit of such other persons as should be interested therein at her death.

The defendants severally put in their answers to the supplemental bill. And the appellant by his answer insisted, that having intermarried with the testator's granddaughter, the said Mary Ann Elizabeth, the daughter and only child of the plaintiff Mrs. Lanove, and she having attained the age of 21, and [368] afterwards dying, having had the said Joyce her daughter, who was also dead, he as husband to his said deceased wife, and next of kin to his said daughter Joyce, had obtained administration to them; and that by virtue of the testator's will, his late wife, or the said Joyce her daughter, as the surviving lawful issue of her mother, had a vested interest in them, or one of them, in the said real and personal estates, and that the same was then vested in him, and that he had a right thereto, expectant on the death of the plaintiff Mrs. Lanove.

The defendants, the donees, by their answers, submitted to the Court, that in case the plaintiff should die without any child or issue living at her decease, they would be entitled to the several shares following in the residue of the testator's estate, viz. the respondent Liege to one fourth; the respondents William Jousselin and John Jousselin to one fourth; the respondents the children of John Pomarede and Mary Benigne his wife to one fourth; and the respondents the children of the testator's niece Querqui de Chalais, to the remaining fourth part.

On the 20th of July 1754, the cause came on to be heard before the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, when his Lordship was pleased to give the usual directions for taking the