barrels of Indian corn for every such servant or slave, old and young, to be allowed in their accounts of administration.

XLIV. If a testator or intestate shall die after the Emblement first day of March, all the emblements of his lands,. which shall be severed before the said thirty-first day of December following, shall, in like manner be assets in the hands of the executor or administrator; but all such emblements growing on the lands on that day, or at the time of the death of the testator or intestate, it that event happen after the thirty-first day of December, and before the first day of March, shall pass with the land to the heir, devisee, reversioner, or remainder

man.

Tenant for

XLV. If there be tenant for life of lands or slaves let or hired to another, at the death of such tenant for life, hfe dying. if that event happen after the first day of March, the lessee, or person hiring, shall hold the lands and slaves until the last day of December following, paying rent or hire to that time, and in the case of slaves, delivering them well clothed:

XLVI. The rent of land or hire of slaves shall be Rent & hire apportioned apportioned between the executor or administrator of him who having a freehold, or other uncertain estate in the land, and the use for life, or for other uncertain term in the slaves, shall die before the rent or hire become due, and him who shall succeed to the land and slaves. as heir, devisee, or person in reversion or remainder, unless in the case of a devisee, the contrary be directed by the testator.

LXVII. The appointment of a debtor executor shall in no case be deemed an extinguishment of the debt, unless it be so directed in the will.

Debtor ap pointed exe.

cutor.

Bond to re

XLVIII. No distribution shall be made of an intes- Distribution tate's state until nine months after his death, nor shall of intestates, estates, when an administrator be compelled to make distribution at made. any time, until bond and security be given by the person entitled to distribution, to refund due proportions of any debts or demands, which may afterwards appear against the intestate, and the costs attending the recovery of such debts.

Allowances to executors

LXIX. Executors and administrators shall be allowed in their accounts all reasonable charges and dis- and adminis bursements which they shall lay out and expend in the trators.

Debts of first

funeral of the deceased, and other their administration; and in extraordinary cases may be allowed such recompence for their personal trouble, as the court on passing their accounts shall judge reasonable.

L. The executors or administrators of a guardian digy.gar of a committee, or of any other person, who shall have dian to ward, been chargeable with, or accountable for the estate of a ward, an ideot, or a lunatic, or the estate of a dead person, committed to their testator or intestate by a court of record, shall pay so much as shall be due from their testator or intestate, to the ward, ideot, or lunatic, or to the legatees or persons entitled to distribution, before any proper debt of their testator or intestate.

Power of ten

Lt. Where any persons shall die seized of lands held ant to devise for life of another, such person may, by his or her last will and testament, in writing, made and proved as is herein before directed, for the devise of lands, devise all his interest in such lands, which shall, if necessary, be assets in the hands of such devisee. And if no such devise be made, such lands for the residue of the term, shall be assets in the hands of the heir, if it shall come to him by reason of a special occupancy, in the same manner as lands descending in fee simple; and if there shall be no special occupant, it shall go to the executors or administrators of the person so dying seized, and be assets in their hands, subject to debts, legacies, and distribution.

Suits against executors or

administra

tors.

Tresspass.

Executors of executors;

LII. Executors or administrators may sue or be sued upon all judgments, bonds, or other specialties, bills, notes, or other writings of their testators or intestates, whether the executors or administrators be, or be not named in such instruments, and also upon all their personal contracts..

LII. Actions of trespass may be maintained by or against executors or administrators, for any goods taken and carried away in the life-time of the testator or intestate; and the damages recovered shall be in the one case for the benefit of the estate, and in the other out of the assets.

LIV. Executors of executors shall do and perform all things in the execution of the will of the first testator, which shall remain undone at the death of the first executor; and shall and may sue or be sued in all things respecting the estate, in the same manner as such first executor could or might have sued or been sued.

Estate com

mitted to sheriff, when,

his power &

LV. If all the executors named in any last will, shall refuse to undertake the executorship, or being required to give security, shall refuse to give, or be unable to procure the same, and no person will apply for duty. administration with the will annexed: Or if no person will apply for administration of the goods and chattels of any intestate, it shall be lawful for the general court, or other court having jurisdiction of such probat or administration as herein before mentioned, after the expiration of three months from the death of the testator or intestate, to order the sheriff of the county, city, or corporation, to take the estate into his possession, and make sale of so much thereof by public auction, as the payment of debts shall make necessary, or as shall be perishable, or be directed by will to be sold: And all sales and conveyances, bona fide made by the sheriff or his deputies, in consequence of such order, shall be as effectual to the purchasers, as if they had been made by the testator or intestate in his life time. The estate shall be sold upon such credit, as the court shall direct, and upon public notice previously given, the purchasers giving bond and good security for payment according to the limited time of credit. The sheriff may sue, if necessary, for the recovery of debts, or of goods and chattels, and shall make a true and perfect inventory of the whole estate, and an account of sales, and shall return the same, together with the bonds, to the court by whom he was ordered to sell, without delay, who shall first direct the payment of such debts as shall be proved before them, and proportion the assets amongst the creditors, without regard to the dignity of debts, where there shall not be sufficient to pay the whole; and then order the surplus, if any, to the lega tees or next of kin to the decedent, according to the directions of the will, or of this act. Whereupon the sheriff, or deputy, shall assign the bonds, and deliver the estate remaining unsold, to the creditors, or others, according to such order, retaining nevertheless his com missions, which shall be the same upon the estate by bim sold, as is allowed for goods taken in execution: and where the whole estate is not sold, he shall moreover be allowed his resonable expences and disbursements in the care of the part unsold.

LVI. All sales and conveyances of lands heretofore sales by shep bona fide made by a sheriff, under an order of court, iff's confirmed VOL. XH.

where the lands had been devised to be sold, and the executor had refused to act, are hereby confirmed and made effectual against all persons claiming under the

testator.

LVII. This act shall commence and be in force from and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.

From Rev. Bills of 1779. ch. XXII.

Conveyances

CHAP. LXII.*

An act for regulating coveyances.

1. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That ne of lands,to be estate of inheritance, or freehold, or for a term of more by deed. than five years in lands or tenements, shall be conveyed from one to another unless the conveyance be declared by writing, sealed and delivered; nor shall such conveyance be good against a purchaser, for valuable consideration, not having notice thereof, or any creditor, unless the same writing be acknowledged by the party or parties who shall have sealed and delivered it, or be proved by three witnesses to be his, her, or their act, before the general court, or before the court When and of that county, city, or corporation, in which the land where record conveyed, or some part thereof, lieth, or in the manner herein after directed, within eight months after the time of sealing and delivering, and be lodged with the clerk of such court, to be there recorded. No covenant or agreement made in consideration of marriage shall Marriage con be good against a purchaser, for valuable consideration, not having notice thereof, or any creditor, unless the same covenant or agreement be acknowledged by the party bound thereby, or be proved by three witnesses to be his, her, or their act; if land be charged before the general court, or the court of that county in which the land or part thereof lieth, or if personal estate only be settled, or covenanted, or agreed to be paid or settled, before the court of that county in which such

ed.

tracts.

Proof of

and when to

party shall dwell, or in the manner hereinafter directed, within eight months after the covenant or agreement made and be lodged with the clerk of such court, to be there recorded. If the party who shall sign and seal any such writing reside not in Virginia, the acknowledgment by such party, or the proof by the number of deeds out of witnesses requisite, of the sealing and delivering of the the state,how writing, before any court of law, or the mayor, or o be recorded. ther chief magistrate of any city, town or corporation of the county in which the party shall dwell, certified by such court, or mayor, or chief magistrate, in the manner such acts are usually authenticated by them, and offered to the proper court to be recorded, within eighteen months after the sealing and delivering, shall be as effectual as if it had been in the last mentioned court. When husband and wife shall have sealed and delivered Wife's relin a writing, purporting to be a conveyance of any estate or dower, how quishment of interest, if she appear in court, and being examined taken in the privily, and apart from her husband, by one of the state. judges thereof, shall declare to him that she did freely and willingly seal and deliver the said writing, to be then shewn and explained to her, and wishes not to retract it, and shall, before the said court, acknowledge the said writing, again shewn to her, to be her act, or if before two justices of the peace of that county in which she dwelleth, if her dwelling be in the United States of America, who may be empowered by commission to be issued by the clerk of the court wherein the writing ought to be recorded, to examine ber privily, and take her acknowledgment, the wife being examined privily and apart from her husband, by those commissioners, shall declare that she willingly signed and sealed the said writing, to be then shewn and explained to her, by them, and consenteth that it may be recorded; and the said commissioners shall return with the commission, . and thereunto annexed, a certificate, under their hands. and seals, of such privy examination by them, and of such declaration made, and consent yielded by her, in either case the said writing acknowledged also by the husband, or proved by witnesses to be his act, and recorded, together with such her privy examination and acknowledgment before the court, or together with such commission and certificate, shall not only be sufficient to convey or release any right of dower thereby intended to be conveyed or released, but be as effectual