Page:The English Reports v1 1900.pdf/400

John Davoren, on the same day, obtained from Lawrence Davoren, a bond and warrant of attorney, and entered judgment thereon, for securing £67 5s. and interest, the pretended consideration whereof was cattle and goods alledged to have been supplied by John to Lawrence.

John Davoren also, by the influence of the said Thady Egan, a Popish priest, prevailed upon Lawrence Davoren to enter into two bonds of the 12th July 1726, (with warrants of attorney to confess judgment thereon,) as also a promisory note of same date, to one Geo. or Gregory Martin; one of which bonds was in the penalty of £400 conditioned for payment of £200, and the other in the penalty of £317 19s. conditioned for payment of £158 19s. 6d. and the promisory note for £100, which bonds and notes were witnessed by said Thady Egan, and procured by threats of John Davoren's becoming a Protestant, and were in trust for him without any valuable consideration paid or given for the same, and since acknowledged by John Davoren to have been passed for that purpose.

John Davoren also prevailed upon Lawrence to execute a bond to him of 19th July 1726, and entered judgment thereon, for securing £147 3s. and interest, the pretended consideration whereof was mostly cattle, alledged to have been supplied by John to Lawrence.

John Davoren also, between the above time and the 23d November 1726, obtained from Lawrence three penal bills for £5, £7, and £5, amounting in the whole to £17, the pretended consideration whereof was money alledged to be lent or paid by John to Lawrence, or for his use.

John Davoren conceiving himself to have become secure from any attempts of Lawrence to recover his right to a moiety of the real estate, called upon and threatened to sue Lawrence for payment of the said several bonds and securities; which occasioned. Lawrence to advise and make inquiry touching his just rights and [13] interests; and when Lawrence fortunately discovered his right to a moiety of the real estates of which his brother James died seised, and became sensible of the unjust manner in which he had been treated, he filed his original bill in the Court of Exchequer in Ireland, against the said John Davoren; stating his title under the said gavelling clause in the second of Queen Anne, to a moiety of the estate of which his brother James died seised, and also stating the unjust manner in which the bonds and securities had mostly been obtained from him; and praying, that John Davoren should pay and account with him for the legacies bequeathed him by the will and codicil, and for the rents and profits of such part of the said James Davoren's real estates as he was entitled to, and that he might be decreed to a moiety of such real estate; and that such of the said bonds and securities as should not appear to have been perfected for valuable considerations, should be delivered up, and satisfaction entered on such of the said judgments as should not appear to have been obtained for good consideration, and for an injunction to stay proceedings at law on the said securities, and for general relief.

In 1733, John Davoren (being cited thereto by Lawrence) and not before, brought in and proved the codicil of James Davoren, in the proper Ecclesiastical Court, which he had till then withheld under various unjust pretences.

Lawrence Davoren having, upon the bill filed by him in 1732, obtained an injunction to stay his brother's proceedings at law upon the bonds which he had entered into, was prevented from inforcing an answer to his bill, or from then further prosecuting his said suit, by means of his poverty and distress; and, by the influence of Edmund Hogan his attorney and agent, who having, after the filing of his bill, married Bridget Davoren, eldest daughter of John Davoren, became then too deeply interested in excluding Lawrence Davoren from his moiety of his brother James's real estate and other his rights, to give him any further assistance in the suit he had instituted for that purpose; and from thenceforth, instead of aiding his former client Lawrence to assert his rights, used all his influence over him to deter him from pursuing his claim to a moiety of his brother James's real estate and was the principal agent in extorting from Lawrence Davoren the following singular instrument, or articles of agreement, for assigning over to William Davoren, son of John Davoren, all his right to the estates of which James died seised, in consideration of his having a lease of Gragans farm for eleven years at £90 a year, and of his having all his bonds and securities delivered up,