Page:The English Reports v1 1900.pdf/757

John Ward, being a trader, became indebted to several persons in many large sums of money; and having committed several acts of bankruptcy, & commission of bankruptcy issued against him on the 20th of November 1730; and the appellants being appointed assignees, the bankrupt's estate and effects were assigned to them accordingly, and his creditors came in and proved their debts under this commission, to the amount of £59,000 and upwards.

The bankrupt, with a view to conceal his effects from his creditors, and to defraud them of their just debts, did, about the year 1725, purchase the office of Clarencieux King at Arms, in the name of his son, the respondent Knox Ward, for which he paid above £3000. He also purchased, in the name of the respondent Knox Ward, a messuage and premises called Pimlico, in the parish of St. Martin in the Fields, in the county of Middlesex, of one Michael Thompson, for which he gave £2000. The bankrupt also, with the like view to defraud his creditors, executed several fraudulent conveyances of his real and personal estate, without any real or valuable consideration whatsoever. Particularly,

[537] By indentures of the 25th and 26th of August 1725, the said John Ward, as well for the support of the said Knox Ward in the dignity of his said office, as out of affection to his said son, conveyed and assigned to the respondents Philip Jones and Francis Pyle, several freehold estates therein mentioned, lying at Hornchurch, Chelmsford, and Dagenham, in the county of Essex; and all other his lands and tenements whatsoever in London and Westminster, and in the said county of Essex, (except the farm called Hammond's Farm;) and also the manor of Woolverston in the county of Suffolk, part for a term of 500 years, and part for a term of 200 years; which premises were of the yearly value of £2000. And he also assigned to the respondents Jones and Pyle, several debts therein mentioned to be due to him, amounting to £9753 14s. 3d. in trust to raise money for the payment of several debts and annuities therein mentioned, and pretended to be due from the bankrupt; and afterwards, in trust for the said Knox Ward.

And by indentures of the 3d and 4th of December 1725, he conveyed and assigned to John Kidgell and Branson Oulson, Hammond's Farm in Hornchurch, (which was excepted out of the last deed,) a lease of the rectory of Hackney in the county of Middlesex, a lease of a house in Bearbinder-lane, London, a lease of six messuages in Westminster, and several mortgages and debts due to him, amounting to £10,139 10s. 4d. in trust for the payment of several fictitious debts therein mentioned, remainder to the said Knox Ward; with a power reserved for the bankrupt, to charge the premises with the payment of any other of his debts: and it was covenanted, that all the premises thereby conveyed and assigned, should, in the first place, be subject to indemnify the said Kidgell and Oulson, against whatsoever they should do about the execution of the trusts thereby reposed in them, provided they did every such act with the privity and direction of the said Knox Ward, in writing first had.

The bankrupt, by other indentures of the 2d and 3d of May 1726, conveyed and assigned to the said Kidgell and Oulson, for a term of 500 years, two houses in Weymouth, three houses and the reversion of a house at Rygate, Turner's-hall, and twelve houses in Philpot-lane and Smithy-lane, London, a lease of two acres of land in Havering, ten houses in Brick-lane, a house and two fields in Shacklewell, a moiety of nineteen houses in Longditch, five houses in St. Sepulchre's, and one in Clement's-lane, London, two turnpikes on Hertford river, several policies of assurance for lives, and several debts due to him to the amount of £42,000 in trust for the payment of the same annuities and debts, pretended to be provided for by the aforesaid deeds of the 25th and 26th of August 1725; and afterwards, in trust for the respondent Knox Ward, and his heirs for ever: with a proviso, that such of the said debts as should be discharged by the respondents Jones and Pyle, should not remain a charge on the premises contained in this deed.

By ether indentures of the 1st and 2d of March 1727, reciting the power reserved for the bankrupt to charge the premises con-[538]-veyed to Kidgell and Oulson, with the payment of any other of his debts; and that he was desirous to provide for the payment of £16,094 11s. 9d. due to the respondent Knox Ward, and £620 16s. 7d. due to the said Kidgell and Oulson, on the balance of accounts