VOLUME III.
DEVISE.
Case 1.—William Fletcher, et Ux,—Appellants; Thomas Chapman, and Others—Respondents [13th December 1703].
[Mew's Dig. iv. 316; xv. 1631; see Hereford v. Ravenhill, 1842, 5 Drew, 51.]
George Goodman, by his will, dated 21st April 1673, gave a legacy of £1000 in the words following, viz.
Also the said George Goodman doth give unto William Goodman his nephew, the sum of £1000 to the intent, the persons hereafter herein named, may purchase an estate in lands with the said £1000 to the best of their discretions; that the rents and profits thereof may come to the said William; provided that the said rents and profits thereof shall be to him only for life. But, if the said William Goodman shall refuse to seal any deed, or acknowledge a fine, to settle the said lands so to be purchased, whereby to make him tenant only for his life, or to bar him from any claim to any other part of the said George Goodman's estate, then my intent is, that this gift shall be null, and I give him only £40.
The testator having omitted to appoint an executor of his will, his widow took out letters of administration, with the will annexed; and, in pursuance of the above direction, she paid £300, part of this legacy, to William Goodman the nephew, who laid it out in the purchase of lands, and the remaining £700 was paid by the administratrix into the hands of one George Cocquerell, to be by him laid out in the purchase of other lands. This, however, was not done; but the rents and profits of the lands purchased with the £300 and the interest of the £700 were, from time to time, received by William Goodman the nephew, during his life.
After his death, the respondent Thomas Chapman, who had married Elizabeth Goodman, the testator's heir at law, claimed both the money and lands in right of his wife; and accordingly brought his bill in Chancery against Cocquerell, and against George, and the appellant Jane, who were the children of William Goodman the nephew, for the recovery thereof.
This cause, after several abatements, was heard on the 16th of June 1699, before the Lord Chancellor Somers; when his Lordship was pleased to decree, that the defendant Fletcher should convey the lands purchased with the £300 and pay the rents and profits thereof, from the death of the said William Goodman, to the [2] plaintiff; and that the defendant Cocquerell should pay the £700 and interest for the same from the death of the said William Goodman, to the said plaintiff; and that the money so paid, should be laid out in the purchase of lands, which should be enjoyed by the plaintiff during his life, and afterwards by the respondent Roger, his son, who was the heir at law of the testator, and by the heirs of the said Roger.
