shall be admitted as a witness to the execution of such will or codicil, within the intent of the said Act; notwithstanding such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment mentioned in such will or codicil.

II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in case, by any will or codicil already made or hereafter to be made, any lands, tenements or hereditaments are or shall be charged with any debt or debts; and any creditor whose debt is so charged, hath attested or shall attest the execution of such will or codicil, every such creditor, notwithstanding such charge, shall be admitted as a witness to the execution of such will or codicil, within the intent of the said Act.

X. And whereas in some of the British Colonies or plantations in America, the said Act of the twenty-ninth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, has been received for law, or Acts of Assembly have been made, whereby the attestation and subscription of witnesses to devises of lands, tenements and hereditaments have been required: therefore, to prevent and avoid doubts which may arise in the said colonies or plantations, in relation to the attestation of such devises of lands, tenements and hereditaments; be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that this Act, and every clause, matter and thing therein contained, shall extend to such of the said colonies and plantations, where the said Act of the twenty-ninth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, is by Act of Assembly made, or by usage received as law, or where by Act of Assembly or usage, the attestation and subscription of a witness or witnesses are made necessary to devises of lands, tenements or hereditaments; and shall have the same force and effect in the construction of or for the avoiding of doubts upon the said Acts of Assembly, and laws of the said colonies and plantations, as the same ought to have in the construction of or for the avoiding of doubts upon the said Act of the twenty-ninth year of the reign of King Charles the Second in England.

7 WM. IV. & 1 VICT. c. 26 (1837). Be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the words and expressions hereinafter mentioned, which in their ordinary signification have a more confined or a different meaning, shall in this Act, except where the nature of the provision or the context of the Act shall exclude such construction, be interpreted as follows; (that is to say), the word "will" shall extend to a testament, and to a codicil, and to an appointment by will or by writing in the nature of a will in exercise of a power, and also to a disposition by will and testament or devise of the custody and tuition of any child, by virtue of an Act passed in the twelfth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled An Act for taking away the Court of Wards and Liveries, and Tenures in capite and by Knights Service, and Purveyance, and for settling a

revenue upon His Majesty in lieu thereof, or by virtue of an Act passed in the Parliament of Ireland in the fourteenth and fifteenth years of the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled An Act for taking away the Court of Wards and Liveries, and Tenures in capite and by Knights Service, and to any other testamentary disposition; and the words "real estate" shall extend to manors, advowsons, messuages, lands, tithes, rents, and hereditaments, whether freehold, customary freehold, tenant right, customary or copyhold, or of any other tenure, and whether corporeal, incorporeal, or personal, and to any undivided share thereof, and to any estate, right, or interest (other than a chattel interest) therein; and the words “ 'personal estate" shall extend to leasehold estates and other chattels real, and also to moneys, shares of government and other funds, securities for money (not being real estates), debts, choses in action, rights, credits, goods, and all other property whatsoever which by law devolves upon the executor or administrator, and to any share or interest therein; and every word importing the singular number only shall extend and be applied to several persons or things as well as one person or thing; and every word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied to a female as well as a male.

II. And be it further enacted, that an Act passed in the thirty-second year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, intituled The Act of Wills, Wards, and Primer Seisins, whereby a man may devise two parts of his land; and also an Act passed in the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth years of the reign of the said King Henry the Eighth, intituled The Bill concerning the Explanation of Wills; and also an Act passed in the Parliament of Ireland, in the tenth year of the reign of King Charles the First, intituled An Act how Lands, Tenements, etc., may be disposed by Will or otherwise, and concerning Wards and Primer Seisins; and also so much of an Act passed in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled An Act for Prevention of Frauds and Perjuries, and of an Act passed in the Parliament of Ireland in the seventh year of the reign of King William the Third, intituled An Act for Prevention of Frauds and Perjuries, as relates to devises or bequests of lands or tenements, or to the revocation or alteration of any devise in writing of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any clause thereof, or to the devise of any estate, pur autre vie, or to any such estate being assets, or to nuncupative wills, or to the repeal, altering, or changing of any will in writing concerning any goods or chattels or personal estate, or any clause, devise, or bequest therein; and also so much of an Act passed in the fourth and fifth years of the reign of Queen Anne, intituled An Act for the Amendment of the Law and the better Advancement of Justice, and of an Act passed in the Parliament of Ireland in the sixth year of the reign of Queen Anne, intituled An Act for the Amendment of the Law, and the better Advancement of Justice, as relates to witnesses to nuncupative wills; and also so much of an Act passed in the fourteenth year of the reign of King

George the Second, intituled An Act to amend the Law concerning Common Recoveries, and to explain and amend an Act made in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled "An Act for Prevention of Frauds and Perjuries," as relates to estates pur autre vie; and also an Act passed in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King George the Second, intituled An Act for avoiding and putting an End to certain Doubts and Questions relating to the Attestation of Wills and Codicils concerning Real Estates in that Part of Great Britain called England, and in His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations in America, except so far as relates to His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations in America; and also an Act passed in the Parliament of Ireland in the same twenty-fifth year of the reign of King George the Second, intituled An Act for the avoiding and putting an end to certain Doubts and Questions relating to the Attestations of Wills and Codicils concerning Real Estates; and also an Act passed in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of King George the Third, intituled An Act to remove certain Difficulties in the Disposition of Copyhold Estates by Will, shall be and the same are hereby repealed, except so far as the same Acts or any of them respectively relate to any wills or estates pur autre vie, to which this Act does not extend.

III. And be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for every person to devise, bequeath, or dispose of, by his will executed in manner hereinafter required, all real estate and all personal estate which he shall be entitled to, either at law or in equity, at the time of his death, and which if not so devised, bequeathed, or disposed of would devolve upon the heir at law, or customary heir of him, or, if he became entitled by descent, of his ancestor, or upon his executor or administrator; and that the power hereby given shall extend to all real estate of the nature of customary freehold or tenant right, or customary or copyhold, notwithstanding that the testator may not have surrendered the same to the use of his will, or notwithstanding that, being entitled as heir, devisee, or otherwise to be admitted thereto, he shall not have been admitted thereto, or notwithstanding that the same, in consequence of the want of a custom to devise or surrender to the use of a will or otherwise, could not at law have been disposed of by will if this Act had not been made, or notwithstanding that the same, in consequence of there being a custom that a will or a surrender to the use of a will should continue in force for a limited time only, or any other special custom, could not have been disposed of by will according to the power contained in this Act, if this Act had not been made; and also to estates pur autre vie, whether there shall or shall not be any special occupant thereof, and whether the same shall be freehold, customary freehold, tenant right, customary or copyhold, or of any other tenure, and whether the same shall be a corporeal or an incorporeal hereditament; and also to all contingent, executory, or other future interests in any real or personal estate, whether the testator may or may not be ascertained as the person or one of the persons in whom the

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same respectively may become vested, and whether he may be entitled thereto under the instrument by which the same respectively were created or under any disposition thereof by deed or will; and also to all rights of entry for conditions broken, and other rights of entry; and also to such of the same estates, interests, and rights respectively, and other real and personal estate, as the testator may be entitled to at the time of his death, notwithstanding that he may become entitled to the same subsequently to the execution of his will.

VI. And be it further enacted, that if no disposition by will shall be made of any estate pur autre vie of a freehold nature, the same shall be chargeable in the hands of the heir, if it shall come to him by reason of special occupancy, as assets by descent, as in the case of freehold land in fee-simple; and in case there shall be no special occupant of any estate pur autre vie, whether freehold or customary freehold, tenant right, customary or copyhold, or of any other tenure, and whether a corporeal or incorporeal hereditament, it shall go to the executor or administrator of the party that had the estate thereof by virtue of the grant; and if the same shall come to the executor or administrator either by reason of a special occupancy or by virtue of this Act, it shall be assets in his hands, and shall go and be applied and distributed in the same manner as the personal estate of the testator or intestate.

VII. And be it further enacted, that no will made by any person under the age of twenty-one years shall be valid.

VIII. Provided also, and be it further enacted, that no will made by any married woman shall be valid, except such a will as might have been made by a married woman before the passing of this Act.

IX. And be it further enacted, that no will shall be valid unless it shall be in writing and executed in manner hereinafter mentioned; (that is to say), it shall be signed at the foot or end thereof by the testator, or by some other person in his presence and by his direction; and such signature shall be made or acknowledged by the testator in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time, and such witnesses shall attest and shall subscribe the will in the presence of the testator, but no form of attestation shall be necessary.1

X. And be it further enacted, that no appointment made by will, in exercise of any power, shall be valid, unless the same be executed in manner herein before required; and every will executed in manner hereinbefore required shall, so far as respects the execution and attestation thereof, be a valid execution of a power of appointment by will, notwithstanding it shall have been expressly required that a will made in exercise of such power should be executed with some additional or other form of execution or solemnity.

XI. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that any soldier being in actual military service, or any mariner or seaman being at sea, may dispose of his personal estate as he might have done before the making of this Act.

1 See 15 & 16 Vict. c. 24.

XIII. And be it further enacted, that every will executed in manner herein before required shall be valid without any other publication thereof.

XIV. And be it further enacted, that if any person who shall attest the execution of a will shall at the time of the execution thereof, or at any time afterwards, be incompetent to be admitted a witness to prove the execution thereof, such will shall not on that account be invalid.

XV. And be it further enacted, that if any person shall attest the execution of any will to whom or to whose wife or husband any beneficial devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment, of or affecting any real or personal estate (other than and except charges and directions for the payment of any debt or debts), shall be thereby given or made, such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment shall, so far only as concerns such person attesting the execution of such will, or the wife or husband of such person, or any person claiming under such person or wife or husband, be utterly null and void, and such person so attesting shall be admitted as a witness to prove the execution of such will, or to prove the validity or invalidity thereof, notwithstanding such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment mentioned in such will.

XVI. And be it further enacted, that in case by any will any real or personal estate shall be charged with any debt or debts, and any creditor, or the wife or husband of any creditor, whose debt is so charged, shall attest the execution of such will, such creditor notwithstanding such charge shall be admitted a witness to prove the execution of such will, or to prove the validity or invalidity thereof.

XVII. And be it further enacted, that no person shall, on account of his being an executor of a will, be incompetent to be admitted a witness to prove the execution of such will, or a witness to prove the validity or invalidity thereof.

XVIII. And be it further enacted, that every will made by a man mariage. or woman shall be revoked by his or her marriage (except a will made destag with in exercise of a power of appointment, when the real or personal estate thereby appointed would not in default of such appointment pass to his or her heir, customary heir, executor, or administrator, or the person entitled as his or her next of kin, under the Statute of Distribution). XIX. And be it further enacted, that no will shall be revoked by

any presumption of an intention on the ground of an alteration in nobed by

circumstances.

XX. And be it further enacted, that no will or codicil, or any part thereof, shall be revoked otherwise than as aforesaid, or by another will or codicil executed in manner herein before required, or by some writing declaring an intention to revoke the same, and executed in the manner in which a will is herein before required to be executed, or by the burning, tearing, or otherwise destroying the same by the testator, or by some person in his presence and by his direction, with the intention of revoking the same.

inclution