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A Treatise on the Law of Wills and Codicils
A Treatise on the Law of Wills and Codicils Author:William Roberts Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. III. FORMAL AND INSTRUMENTAL REQUISITES. SECT. I. Signature and Subscription. THE formalities required by slat. 29 Car.2. c. 3. are, ture of t... more »he te- n utor, and tiie 1st, that the will be in writing-;—2d, that it be signed Kubscriptinn of .... .... , , the witnesses, by the devisor, or some other, in his presence and by his direction ;—and, 3d, that it be attested and subscribed in his presence, by three or more credible witnesses. The clause in question is as follows :—" And be it further enacted that from and after the four and twentieth day of June, all devises and bequests of any lands or tenements, devisable either by the statute of Wills, or by this statute, or by force of the custom of Kent, or the custom of any borough, or any other particular custom, shall be in writing, and signed by the party so devising the same, or by some other person in his presence, and by his express directions, and shall be attested and subscribed in the presence of tHesaid devisor, by three or four credible witnesses, or else they shall be utterly void and of none effect." Whatisasuffi- If the language made use of by the Legislature were cunt signing. . . to be understood in its natural and usual sense, it would seem that there could be no great contention in regard to the meaning of the words ' shall be signed by the devisor,' which are generally considered as importing the actual and formal subscription of the name of theparty at the bottom of the instrument. And by directing1 this to be attested by three witnesses, in the testator's presence, the statute at first view seems to require that the attestators should have ocular evidence of the act of signing performed by the testator. Very soon, however, after the Legislature had thought fit to place these...« less