CHAPTER LI.

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES IN NORTH CAROLINA

- PROPERTY OF TRUSTEES, HOW APPOINTED THEIR DUTIES-LIMITATION OF PROPERTY HELD BY.

§ 739. In the State of North Carolina, all glebe lands and tenements purchased, given or devised for the support of any particular ministry, or mode of worship; and all churches, and other houses built for the purpose of public worship; and all lands and donations of any kind of property or estate that have been or may be given, granted or devised to any church or religious denomination, religious society or congregation within the State, for their respective use, must be and remain forever to the use and occupancy of that church or denomination, society or congregation, for which the said glebes, lands, tenements, property and estate were so purchased, given, granted or devised, or for which the said churches, chapels or other houses of public worship were built; and the estate therein is deemed and held to be absolutely vested, as between the parties thereto, in the trustees respectively of the said churches, denominations, societies and congregations for their several use, according to the intent expressed in the conveyance, gift, grant or will; and in case there be no such trustees, then in the said churches, denominations, societies and congregations respectively, according to such intent. (Revised Code, Chap. 97; Sec. 1.)

§ 740. All houses and edifices, erected for public religious worship on vacant lands, or on lands of the State not for other purposes intended or appropriated, together with two acres adjoining the same, may and must be held and kept

sacred for divine worship, to and for the use of the society by which the same was originally established. (Ib., Sec. 2.)

§741. The conference, synod, convention or other ecclesiastical body representing any church or religious denomination within the State, as also the religious societies and congregations within the State, may, from time to time, and at any time, appoint in such manner as such body, society or congregation may deem proper, a suitable number of persons as trustees for such church, denomination, religious society or congregation, who, and their successors, have power to receive donations, and to purchase, take and hold property, real and personal, in trust for such church or denomination, religious society or congregation. (Ib., Sec. 3.)

§ 742. Besides the lands and lots specially set apart and appropriated to divine worship, no church or denomination can have, to their own use, lands of a greater yearly value than six thousand dollars, and no single congregation or society lands of a greater yearly value than five hundred dollars. Such lands are not subject to taxation. (Ib.)

§ 743. The body appointing may remove such trustees, or any of them, and fill all vacancies caused by death or otherwise; and the said trustees, and their successors, may sue and be sued in all proper actions, for or on account of the donations and property so held or claimed by them, and for and on account of any matter relating thereto. And such trustees are made accountable to the said churches, denominations, societies and congregations for the use and management of such property, and they must surrender it to any person authorized to demand it. (Ib., Sec. 4.)

§744. A conveyance to certain persons, as trustees for

the Methodist Episcopal church, will authorize such persons to bring an action of trespass quare clausum fregit against wrong-doers in relation to the property conveyed, though they may have not been appointed trustees according to the act of assembly relating to the appointment of trustees by religious congregations. The title would be vested in such persons individually, and they could recover at law, though in the writ and declaration they should describe themselves as trustees. The latter word would be rejected as surplusage. (Walker v. Fawcett, 7 Iredell's Law R. 44.)

§ 745. Religious societies, or their trustees, in North Carolina, have not a general capacity of acquisition of property. They can only take for the use of the society. The society is invested with corporate or artificial qualities, but a use or trust not to itself as a religious society, would not be sanctioned or aided by the law. (The Trustees of the Quaker Society of Contentrea v. Dickinson, 1 Dev. 189.)

§ 746. A devise that land should be sold, and the proceeds laid out in building convenient places of worship, free for the use of all Christians who acknowledge the divinity of Christ and the necessity of a spiritual regeneration, would be void for uncertainty; but a devise to a religious congregation would be valid if the court can see, with certainty, what congregation is intended. (White, Ex'r, v. University, 4 Ire. Eq. 19.)

CHAPTER LII.

-THEIR

CONVEYANCES TO-TRUS

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES IN GEORGIA-HOW INCORPORATED-
POWERS NAMES, HOW CHANGED

TEES-VACANCIES HOW FILLED FORM OF PETITION AND

ORDER.

§747. When the persons interested may desire a church or camp-ground in the State of Georgia, incorporated, they may petition in writing the Superior or Inferior Court of the county where such association may have been formed, setting forth the object of their association and the privilege they desire to exercise, together with the name and style by which they desire to be incorporated; and said court are thereupon required to pass a rule or order directing such petition to be entered of record on the minutes of said court, whereupon such church or camp-ground becomes a body corporate. (Cobb's Digest of the Laws of Georgia, 542, Sec. 1.)

§ 748. When such church or camp-ground becomes incorporated as aforesaid, it has power under and by the name designated in the said petition, to have and use a common seal, to contract and be contracted with, to sue and be sued, to answer and be answered unto in any court of law or equity, to appoint such officers as it may deem necessary, and to make such rules and regulations as such corporation may think proper for its own government, not contrary to the laws of the State, but it can make no contracts or purchase, or hold any property of any kind, except such as may be absolutely necessary to carry into effect the objects of the incorporation. (Ib., Sec. 2.)