Syllabus. The objection that the officer's certificate does not state that she was informed of the contents of the deed-if it have any force whatever under the statute of 1847, permitting the non-resident feme covert to acknowledge her deeds as if she were unmarried-is not well taken. The certificate shows that she executed the deed freely and without force or compulsion from the husband or from any one else, "fully understanding the contents" thereof. Besides, this defect, if it be one, is of the kind that was cured by the act of 1853, which only required it to appear, in substance, as it does here, that the deed was executed freely and voluntarily, and, in the case of a married woman, that she knew its contents and was examined separately and apart from her husband. She must have known, if, as certified, she fully understood the contents. of the deed. The judgment below was right, and is Affirmed. GILMER v. STONE. APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS. Submitted December 20, 1886.- Decided March 7, 1887. A, a resident in Irish Grove, Illinois, died there, leaving a will by which, after bequeathing his library to the Presbyterian church of Irish Grove, and $500 for the erection of another Presbyterian church in Illinois, and $50 to be paid on the minister's salary of the Presbyterian church of Irish Grove for 1884, and some other bequests, he bequeathed and devised the remainder of his estate "to be equally divided between the board of foreign and the board of home missions." The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America has a corporate "Board of Foreign Missions" and a corporate "Board of Home Missions;" but it was agreed by counsel that several other religious bodies in the United States have similar organizations, for the same purposes. Held, that there was a latent ambiguity in the will respecting the object of the residuary gift, which ambiguity could be removed by extrinsic evidence; and that the evidence introduced on that point, taken in connection with the other bequests in the will for the benefit of Presbyterian churches, showed that the testator, Argument for Appellee. in making the residuary gift, had in his mind the Board of Foreign Missions and the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America, of which he was a member and an officer. The restriction upon the right of a congregation, formed for religious purposes, to receive "land not exceeding in quantity. . . ten acres," which is imposed by § 42 of the act of the legislature of Illinois of April 18, 1872, applies to congregations incorporated for the object named in § 35 of that act, viz.: "the purpose of religious worship;" and does not affect foreign benevolent or missionary societies incorporated either with the objects named in the incorporation of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, or with the objects named in the incorporation of the Board of Home Missions of that church, although both organizations are important agencies in the general religious work of that church. Christian Union v. Yount, 101 U. S. 352, commented upon, explained, and affirmed. BILL in equity to set aside a will and its probate for uncertainty so far as they related to the residuary devise and bequest. Decree, dismissing the bill, from which plaintiff appealed. The case is stated in the opinion of the court. Mr. D. T. Littler, Mr. L. A. Whipp, and Mr. R. E. Lewis for appellant cited: 1 Jarman on Wills, Randolph & Talcott ed. 403 n. 3, 404 n.; Story Eq. Jur. §§ 1158, 1183; Perry on Trusts, 116, 713; Bridges v. Pleasants, 4 Iredell Eq. 26;1 Fontain v. Ravenel, 17 How. 369; Wheeler v. Smith, 9 How. 55, 79; Taylor v. Keep, 2 Bradwell, 368; Allen's Executors v. Allen, 18 How. 385; Runyan v. Coster, 14 Pet. 122; Lathrop v. Commercial Bank, 8 Dana, 114; Laws of Illinois, 1859, p. 20, Gross. Rev. 124; Rev. Stat. Ill. 1845, c. 35, 8.44; St. Peter's Roman Catholic Congregation v. Germain, 104 Ill. 440; Laws Illinois, 1872, c. 32, § 42; Stevens v. Pratt, 101 Ill. 206. Mr. James McCartney for appellee cited: 2 Phill. Ev. 745– 756; Wigram Extraneous Ev. 118, 138; 1 Jarman on Wills, c. 13 and note; King v. Ackerman, 2 Black, 408; Bradley v. Rees, 113 Ill. 327; Heuser v. Harris, 42 Ill. 425; Hinckley v. Thatcher, 139 Mass. 477; Allen's Executors v. Allen, 18 How. 385; Christian Union v. Yount, 101 U. S. 352; St. Peter's Roman Catholic Congregation v. Germain, 104 Ill. 440; Vidal v. 1 S. C. 44 Am. Dec. 94. Opinion of the Court. Girard, 2 How. 127; Hayward v. Davidson, 41 Ind. 212; De Camp v. Dobbins, 29 N. J. Eq. (2 Stewart) 36; Baker v. Neff, 73 Ind. 68; Alexander v. Tolleston Club, 110 Ill. 65. MR. JUSTICE HARLAN delivered the opinion of the court. Robert Gilmer, late of Irish Grove, Menard County, Illinois, died December 31, 1883, having made a last will by which he disposed of his entire estate, consisting of about four thousand dollars in personal property, and from three to four hundred acres of land in that state. The eleventh clause of the will is in these words: "I also, after paying all debts and claims against my estate, bequeath and devise the remainder of my estate to be equally divided between the board of foreign and the board of home missions." The object of the present suit is to obtain a decree declaring that clause to be void, and directing the estate of the testator, after meeting the debts and the bequests contained in other clauses to be paid to the complainant, the uncle and only heir-at-law of the decedent. The "Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America" and the "Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America corporations created under the laws of New York --severally appeared, were made defendants, and filed answers, each claiming the right to share in the devise in the eleventh clause of the will. The executors admit the justice of these claims, but ask the direction of the court in the premises. To these answers a general replication was filed; and, the cause having been heard upon the pleadings and proofs, the bill was dismissed with costs. It is agreed in the case that the Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal and other churches, like the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, have boards of home and foreign missions; consequently, it is contended, the eleventh clause of the will is void for uncertainty as to the donee and the purposes of the gift. In this view we do not concur. It is undoubtedly the rule, in respect to the testamentary disposition of property, real and personal, that uncertainty either as to the subject or object of a devise will be fatal to its validity. But that rule has Opinion of the Court. no application here; for, if there were no other facts in the case than that there are numerous boards which may be generally described by the words, the "board of foreign missions," and "the board of home missions," the devise in the eleventh clause would not fail. With respect to charities, gifts may be good which, with respect to individuals, would be void; "and where there are two charities of the same name, the legacy will be divided between them, if it cannot be ascertained which was the intended object." 1 Jarman on Wills, 376. Can it be ascertained by competent evidence which of these various boards were the objects of the testator's bounty? In the fourth clause of the will, the testator bequeathed his library to the Presbyterian church of Irish Grove; in the ninth, five hundred dollars toward the erection of a Presbyterian church in Greenview, Illinois, provided the same was built within two years from the date of the will; otherwise, the money should revert to his estate; and in the tenth, he bequeathed fifty dollars to be paid on the minister's salary of the Presbyterian church of Irish Grove for the year 1884. And there was extrinsic evidence to the following effect: That the testator had been for many years a member and ruling elder of the Irish Grove Presbyterian Church, one of the local congregations of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America; that collections were annually taken up in that congregation for the various boards of that church, including its Boards of Foreign and Home Missions; that while it was announced from the pulpit that collections would be taken for the Board of Foreign Missions or the Board of Home Missions, without, in words, naming the Presbyterian Church, all such collections, with the knowledge and assent of the church session, of which the testator was an active and zealous member, were, without exception, sent to the officers of the Presbyterian Boards of Foreign and Home Missions in New York City, and regular reports thereof made to the session; that the testator took especial interest in the work of those particular boards and uniformly contributed thereto; and that he did not, so far as his pastor or associates in the church session knew, make contributions to the societies of any other Opinion of the Court. church, except to the Bible Society, which was sustained by several religious organizations. Of the competency of this evidence there can be no doubt. The purpose of it was to place the court, as far as possible, in the situation in which the testator stood, and thus bring the words employed by him into contact with the circumstances attending the execution of the will. Such proof does not contradict the terms of that instrument, nor tend to wrest the words of the testator from their natural operation. It serves only to identify the institutions described by him as "the board of foreign and the board of home missions;" and thus the court is enabled to avail itself of the light which the circumstances, in which the testator was placed at the time he made the will, would throw upon his intention. "The law is not so unreasonable," says Mr. Wigram, “as to deny to the reader of an instrument the same light which the writer enjoyed." Wigram on Wills, 2d Amer. ed. 161. The proof made a case of latent ambiguity. Such an ambiguity may arise, "either when it names a person as the object of a gift or a thing as the subject of it, and there are two persons or things that answer such name or description; or, secondly, it may arise when the will contains a misdescription of the object or subject." Patch v. White, 117 U. S. 210, 217. In the same case it was observed that, "as a latent ambiguity is only disclosed by extrinsic evidence, it may be removed by extrinsic evidence." See, also, Allen's Executors v. Allen, 18 How. 385, 393; Hinckley v. Thatcher, 139 Mass. 477; Breckenridge v. Duncan, 2 A. K. Marsh. (Ky.) 50, 51;1 Morgan v. Burrows, 45 Wis. 211, 217; Brewster v. McCall, 15 Conn. 273; Tilton v. Society, 60 N. H. 377, 382; 1 Jarman on Wills, 423, 431'; 1 Greenl. Ev. § 290. Construing, then, the will with reference to the extrinsic evidence of the uniform relations of the testator to the subject of foreign and home missions, and to certain societies engaged in that kind of work, it is not to be doubted that, in the eleventh clause, he had in mind the Boards of Foreign and Home Missions 1 S. C. 12 Am. Dec. 359. |