Condition of bonds of ex'rs and nexed. ed to any such executor or executors so suspected, a certificate for obtaining the probat of any will, or a commission of administration of any estate, to any person or persons whatsoever, until such executor or executors, person or persons, shall have given such sufficient security, either of the inhabitants of that county, or any other, as the court shall approve (respect being had to the value of the estate) for his, her, or their faithful and true administration of such estates; which security shall be bound to the justices of the court, and to their successors, in a bond, with one of the following conditions, to wit: The Condition of the Bond to be given by Executors and HE condition of this obligation is such, That if the above bound A. B. executor of the last will adm'rs. with and testament of C. D. deceased, [or administrator, the will an- with the will annexed, of all the goods, chattels, and credits of C. D. deceased,] do make, or cause to be made, a true and perfect inventory of all and singular the goods, chattels, and credits, of the said deceased, which have or shall come to the hands, possession, or knowledge of him the said A. B. or into the hands or possession of any other person or persons for him, and the same so made, do exhibit, or cause to be exhibited, into the county court of N. at such time as he shall be thereto required by the said court; and the same goods, chattels, and credits, and all other the goods, chattels, and credits, of the said deceased at the time of his death, which at any time after shall come to the hands or possession of the said A. B. or into the hands or possession of any other person or persons for him, do well and truly administer, according to law; and further, do make a just and true account of his actings and doings therein, when thereto required by the said court; and also do well and truly pay and deliver all the legacies contained and specified in the said testament, as far as the said goods, chattels, and credits, will thereunto extend, according to the value thereof, and the law shall charge him: then this obligation to be void and of none effect, otherwise to remain in full force and virtue. The Condition of the Bond to be given by Adminis trators. HE condition of this obligation is such, That if Conditions Tthe above bound A. B. administrator of all the ordin goods, chattels and credits, of C. D. deceased, do make, bond. XIII. And it is hereby enacted and declared, That the Bonds payasaid bonds shall be good and valid, to all intents and ble to justi purposes, therein mentioned; and that in the name of ces. the justices, to whom such bond shall be made paiable, and of their successors, the same may and shall be cuted. prosecuted against the parties therein bound, and every of them, at the costs and charges in the law of the party How prose injured: And that the said bonds or any of them, shall. not become void upon the first recovery had upon them; but if any person shall thereafter, find him or herself aggrieved by the misbehaviour of the executor or executors, administrator or administrators, therein named, then he or she so aggrieved, may commence suit, as aforesaid, upon such bond, and shall recover, as if no process had theretofore issued upon such bond; and so process upon such bonds may issue, and judgment thereupon shall be given, toties quoties, until the will of the testator therein mentioned be fulfilled, (as far as lies in the executors to fulfil the same,) or the administration of the estate therein mentioned, be justly and truly performed and compleated, or else that one or more judgment or judgments shall be given for the full sum expressed for the penalty in the said bond; which said bond may be put in suit in the county court, before which the same was entred into; any law, custom, or usage to the contrary thereof, in any wise, notwithstanding. Executor failing to XIV. And if any person or persons nominated and appointed to be the executor or executors of any person give securi deceased, shall make legal proof of such deceased perty, administration with son's last will and testament, and upon the court's susthe will an- pecting such executor or executors of indirect or fraunexed may dulent administration and management of the testator's be granted. estate, either for reasons suggested to them by the creditors or legatees therein concerned, or upon their knowledge; and thereupon the said executor or executors being ordered by the court to give security, and failing, either at the time of such proof made, or within two months after, to give such bond and security, as is before directed, for his, her, or their true and faithful administration of the estate of such person deceased, according to his or her will; such failure shall be construed, deemed, and taken in law, to be a refusal to accept the executorship, and administration cum testamento annexo, shall or may be granted in the manner herein before directed, to such next of kin to the deceased, as should otherwise have administration, in case no such will had been made; any law, custom, or usage to the contrary hereof, in any wise, notwithstanding. be returned XV. And that the value of all decedents estates may Inventory to be the better known, and an account thereof the more to court, by justly kept, every person or persons being appointed ex'rs and executor or executors, administrator or administra- adm'rs. tors, of any, or part of any estate whatsoever, and having a certificate for obtaining probat, or commission of administration granted unto him, her, or them, for the same, shall, at the next court after the obtaining of such certificate, upon his, her, or their corporal oath, exhibit a true and perfect inventory, as far as in them lies, of all and every part of the estate whereof the executorship, or administration shall be to him, her, or them, committed: And if it so happen, that such a full and perfect inventory, as is directed, cannot be made in the time hereby mentioned, upon reasonable cause to them shewn, the court may allow such further time for exhibiting such inventory, as to them shall seem necessary. XVI. And the courts shall cause appraisements of Appraise. ments, how all decedents estates to be made in money, as soon as possible, by at least three good and lawful men upon to be made. oath, and in the same order, whereby the court shall order such appraisement; they shall also appoint the appraisers, and nominate one or more of the justices of their county, to administer an oath to the said appraisers, for their true and just valuing the estate, according to the best of their judgment, (which justices so nominated, or any one of them, shall be and is hereby fully impowered to administer such oath;) and accordingly the same shall be held and deemed to be lawfully administred, and to enure and to take effect, as firm and valid in law, to the purposes mentioned. Every one of which said appraisers shall be paid thirty allowance. Appraiser's pounds of tobacco for every day he shall attend to make such appraisement. XVII. And for peventing all disputes that may a- Servants and rise concerning the right of crops upon the ground, It slaves to be is hereby enacted and declared, That where any person continued on plantation of or persons shall die intestate, whilst his crop of Indian decedent. Corn, Wheat, or other Grain, or Tobacco is on the ground, unfinished, or dying testate, shall not have otherwise directed, all and every servant and slave, employed in the said crop at the time of such decease, shall be continued on the plantations, and employed in the crop or crops respectively, until the five and twentieth assets. day of December then next coming; and that then the said crop shall be deemed and taken to be assets in the executors or administrators hands, to be valued by apCrops to be praisers to be appointed, in the same manner as they shall be for the other part of the deceased person's estate; any law, custom, or usage to the contrary, notwithstanding. And the slaves employed in the said crop, as aforesaid, shall, after the said five and twentieth day of December, be delivered to such person or persons to whom the same is declared to belong, by an act of assembly, made at a general assembly, begun at the capitol, the twenty-third day of October, in the Slaves, when year one thousand seven hundred and five, intituled, to be deliv- An act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, and Indian Slaves, within this Dominion to be Real Estate. ed to heir. adm'r not XVIII. Provided always, and it is the true intent and meaning of this act, That no executor or adminisExecutor or trator shall be answerable for the price of any negro, answerable or other servant or slave, which shall happen to die befor slave dy- fore the said twenty-fifth day of December, although ing. such negro, or other servant or slave, shall be put into the inventory of the deceased person's estate. When testator may direct his es tate not to be appraised. When no se XIX. Provided always, That if any person shall hereafter depart this life, leaving an estate more than sufficient to pay all debts due from the same, such person shall and may have liberty to settle his or her estate by will, in such manner as he or she shall think fit; and may also direct, that the same shall not be appraised; and every such will shall be held valid, according to the true intent thereof: And the making a true inventory of the estate of such person, without proceeding to appraise the same, shall be held a sufficient compliance with this act. XX. Provided also, That if any person or persons curity may already departed this life hath, or any person or perbe required sons who shall hereafter depart this life, shall by will of executor. bequeath his or her estate to his or her children, and make them, or such of them as are of age, executors of such will; or bequeath his or her estate to the busband or wife, or to his wife and children, and make them, or either of them, as aforesaid, executors; or in case there be no husband, or wife, or children, such person dying, shall by will make any person or persons whatsoever his or her executor and residuary legatee, or where the testator shall by his will direct, that his |
