Page:The English Reports v1 1900.pdf/650
Clarke to the appellant, and before he and his said son, or either of them, had entered into such security to the appellant, viz. in March 1774, the said Godfrey Clarke being seised to him and his heirs, or otherwise well entitled for some other good estate of inheritance, of or to divers manors and hereditaments of a very considerable yearly value, and being possessed of a very considerable personal estate, died, having first published his last will and testament in writing, dated the 29th of June 1765; and thereby, among other things, gave and devised to his said son Godfrey Bagnall Clarke, all his manors and hereditaments, and all his personal estate of every sort and kind whatsoever, upon trust that he should thereout pay and discharge all the debts which he should owe at his decease, and certain legacies or sums therein mentioned, and appointed his said son Godfrey Bagnall Clarke executor; and he not only possessed himself of the personal estate and effects of his said late father, but also entered upon the said manors and hereditaments so devised to him as aforesaid: that shortly after the decease of the said Godfrey Clarke, the said Godfrey Bagnall Clarke paid to the appellant £50 for one quarter of the said annuity, from Midsummer 1773, and afterwards likewise paid to the appellant the sum of £50 for another quarter of the said annuity, due at Christmas 1773, and confidently assured the appellant that the said annuity should be properly secured to him for the future; but before he had executed any such security, or paid the appellant any money whatsoever on account of the said annuity, that is to say, in December 1774, the said Godfrey Bagnall Clarke died, leav-[379]-ing the respondent Gilbert Clarke his brother and heir at law; who, under a commission issued out of the Court of Chancery, had since been found and declared a lunatic: that the said Godfrey Bagnall Clarke duly made his last will and testament in writing, bearing date the 4th of December 1774, whereby (among other things) he bequeathed to the respondents Sir Thomas George Skipwith, bart. and Edward Gibbon, esq. and the survivor of them, all his goods, chattels, and personal estate whatsoever; in trust to sell and dispose thereof, and out of the money arising thereby, to pay and discharge the legacies mentioned in his will, and all his debts on mortgage, bond, or simple contract; and he devised to the said respondents, and their heirs, all his real estate and effects, upon trust, amongst other things, to apply the same in aid of his personal estate, in case the same should prove deficient in discharging all his said legacies and debts, and all debts and incumbrances whatsoever then existing and charged upon or affecting his real estates: that the said respondents Sir Thomas George Skipwith and Edward Gibbon soon after proved the said will in the proper Ecclesiastical Court, and got in the personal estate of the said Godfrey Bagnall Clarke, and also the unadministered part of the personal estate of his father, the said Godfrey Clarke, and also entered upon the real estates of the said Godfrey Bagnall Clarke; and that the whole or the greatest part of the real and personal estate and effects, as well of the said Godfrey Clarke the father, as Godfrey Bagnall Clarke the son, having thus centered in the respondents Sir Thomas George Skipwith and Edward Gibbon, the appellant represented to them that the said annuity was in arrear since Christmas 1773, and requested them to pay him not only the arrear out of the real and personal estate of the said Godfrey Clarke and Godfrey Bagnall Clarke, or one of them, but also to secure the growing payments thereof during his life out of the said funds, with which request they refused to comply. And therefore the bill prayed, that an account might be taken of what was due to the appellant, in respect of the arrears of his said annuity of £200 and that what should appear to be due or owing to the appellant on the taking of such account, might be paid to him accordingly, by or out of the personal assets of the said Godfrey Clarke, and his said son Godfrey Bagnall Clarke, or one of them, come to the hands of the said respondents Sir Thomas George Skipwith and Edward Gibbon; and if the same should not be sufficient for that purpose, that an account might be taken of the rents and profits of the real estates of the said Godfrey Clarke and his said son respectively, come to the hands of the said respondents Sir Thomas George Skipwith and Edward Gibbon; and that what should appear to be coming on the taking of the said account, after all just and reasonable allowances, might be applied in aid of the said personal estate, towards the discharge of the arrears of the said annuity of £200; and that if the same, together with such personal estate and
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