Martin v. Woods

Alienage of a comandan! must be pleaded in abatement The estate of a tenant for life being vested in the commonwealth, all his ngnt, &c., was sold by order of government After the death of tenant for life, and within five years after the death of the purchaser, the reversioner entered upon his heir, ten at at sufferance, and his entry was held to be lawful.

This ivas a writ of entry in the quibus, in which the demandant counted upon his own seisin of lands in Townsend, * in this county, within thirty years, and upon a disseisin within that time by the tenant. The general issue being joined, a trial was had before the Chief Justice, at the sittings here after October term, 1809, and a verdict found, by consent of the parties, for the demandant, for one moiety only of the lands demanded, subject to the opinion of the Court on the fol-owing case, viz.: — , William Martin, and Anne, his wife, were formerly seised of the tenements demanded in fee simple in her right, and continued so seised until the term of the Court of Common Pleas holden within and for the county of Middlesex, in December, 1782; at which term, by the judgment of the same Court, all the said William’s right, title, interest, and estate, in the tenements demanded, were vested in the commonwealth. Afterwards, in June, 1786, a committee duly authorized by the General Court, bargained and sold all the commonwealth’s right, title, interest, and estate, aforesaid, to Henry Woods, the father of the tenant, who entered by virtue of the same conveyance, became seised of the tenements aforesaid, as the law required, and continued so seised until his death, in February, 1804 ; and on his death, Samson Woods, the tenant, his son and heir, entered into the same tenements, became seised thereof, as the law requires, and continued so seised until the entry of the demandant hereafter mentioned. The said Anne died in 1793, leaving the demandant, her son, and Gilbert Ainsley, her grandson, her next of kin; and the said William Martin afterwards died July 11, 1799. Afterwards, in February, 1808, the demandant, as heir to his mother, Anne Martin, entered into (he demanded tenements, and became seised thereof, as the law requires, and continued so seised thereof. Afterwards, the said Sam.son, the tenant, reentered upon, and ousted him. The demandant was born in Boston, in the year 1752, and always dwelt 'here until 1774, having, before that time, been ad mitted an attorney of the inferior Court of Common Pleas for the .county of Suffolk. In 1774, he removed * tram Boston to the Island of Jamaica, where he lived and practised law until 1791; except that in March,. 1783, he was in Paris, and thence went to London, under a royal pass, where he resided some time, and then returned to Jamaica. In 1791, he left Jamaica, and came to Boston, with the intention of living and practising law there as an attorney; and was accordingly, in the same year, recommended by the bar of the county of Suffolk to the justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, for admission as an attorney of that Court; but he was not admitted. In the same year he removed to the state of New York, in which state he has ever since dwelt, and now dwells. On the 4th day of August, 1792, he appeared before the Supreme Court of Judicature of that state, and in open Court took and subscribed the oath of abjuration and allegiance to that state, the oaths of office as an attorney and counsellor at law, and the oath to support the constitution of the United States, and was thereupon admitted an attorney and counsellor at law in the said Court. On the 8th day of October, in the same year, James Lansing, Jun., one of the justices of the Supremo Court of Judicature of the state of New York, certified under his hand that the demandant was a citizen of the said state, and duly admitted a counsellor at law of the same court. The said Gilbert Ainsley is the son of Elizabeth Ainsley, who was a daughter of the said Anne Martin, who survived her. The said Gilbert was born in the year 1774, at Boston, where his mother then lived; and in the same year he removed, with his parents, to the province of Canada, in which province, or in some other part of the now British Dominions, he has ever since dwelt, and not in any of the United States. • And • it is agreed by the parties, that, if it appear to the Court that any of the facts aforesaid are improperly admitted in evidence under this issue, then all such facts, so improperly admitted, are to be laid out of the case, which *is to be considered by the Court as if those facts were not in it. Now, if the Court shall be of opinion, from such of the facts aforesaid as are properly admitted in evidence on this issue, that both the demandant and the said Gilbert Ainsley can, by law, inherit lands from the said Anne Martin, and that the entry of the demandant was lawful, then the verdict is to stand. But if the Court shall be of opinion, from such of the facts aforesaid as are properly admitted in evidence, that the demandant can, and that the said Gilbert cannot, by law, inherit lands from the said Anne Martin, and that the said entry was lawful, then the verdict is to be set aside, and a general verdict for the demandant for the whole of the tenements aforesaid is to be entered. But if the Court shall be of opinion, from such of the said facts as are properly admitted in evidence under this issue, that the demandant cannot inherit lands from the said Anne Martin, or that his entry aforesaid was unlawful, then the verdict is also to be set aside, and a general verdict for the tenant is to be entered, and judgment is to be rendered accordingly. The cause was argued October term, 1810, by Ward and F Blake for the demandant, and Davis (Solicitor-General) and Bigelow for the tenant. ,