whom this cause stands referred, to inquire and state to the Court whether it will be proper, and for the benefit of the plaintiff, the infant, to make any, and what abatements, from the rents accrued due from John Westmore, John Amer, John Chapman, and Henry Hood Hope respectively, from Michaelmas, 1817, up to Michaelmas, 1820, as in the petition mentioned; and it is ordered, that the petitioner, Thomas Handley, the receiver of the rents and profits of the estates in question in this cause, be at liberty to lay before the said Master proposals from them, or any of them, or any other persons, for renting and holding of the said infant plaintiff, either all such parts of the said farms and lands, the terms wherein are expired, alone, or together with the said farms and lands, the terms wherein are existing, or any of them, as from Michaelmas next, and either for such term or terms of years as the said Master shall approve, or from year to year; and it is ordered, that the said Master do consider of such respective proposals, and report his opinion thereupon to the Court; whereupon such further order shall be made as shall be just. ATTORNEY-GENERAL V. LEWIN. V. C. April 7, 1837. THE decree dated 7th July, 1835, made on the hearing of The 59 Geo. 3, c. 12, s. 17, poor-rate and this information, referred it to the Master to inquire and held not to excertify to the Court who were the trustees in whom certain tend to land, the profits of charity estates, partly freehold and partly copyhold, situate which are applicable to other at Wickham Market, and called the old town lands and purposes than new town lands, were vested. The Master, by his Re- in aid of the port, dated 15th March, 1837, found that by an ancient church-rate. deed in the possession of the vestry clerk of the parish of Wickham Market, and therein stating a grant made in the thirty-third year of the reign of King Henry the Sixth, and by the will of Robert Christnesse dated the 16th September, 1464, and by the will of Ann Barker dated the 15th August, 1730, and from the court rolls of the : manor of Wickham, several pieces of land had been from time to time devised, granted and bequeathed to certain persons in the said deed, wills and grant particularly named, upon certain trusts for the reparation of the church of Wickham Market, and for the relief of the poor of the parish of Wickham Market, either in the workhouse or otherwise; for binding one poor boy apprentice in each year from the said parish; for instructing the poor of the parish, and for other charitable purposes in the parish of Wickham Market, which it was stated to the Master were not known; and which several parcels of land constituted the lands called the old town lands and the new town lands and he found that divers admissions of certain of the inhabitants of the parish of Wickham Market to the said lands, or to such part thereof as was of copyhold tenure, had been from time to time had, in order, as was, stated, to avoid a forfeiture thereof to the lord of the manor of Wickham; and that the last of such admissions was at a court baron holden the 6th of November, 1787, when William Salmon, William Damant, Stephen Blincoe, and Samuel Salmon, and the defendants John Paternoster, Thomas Butcher, James Churchyard, Thomas Gall, and Stephen Virtue, were admitted tenants to such parts of the lands as were of copyhold tenure as trustees thereof; and he found that of the several trustees so admitted four of them were dead; and that they the said defendants above mentioned, as the survivors of such trustees, had, since their appointment as such trustees, continued to act in the trusts as to so much of the said old town lands and new town lands as are of copyhold tenure; and that it could not be ascertained or discovered in whom the freehold hereditaments, or the legal estate in fee thereof, were or was vested, but that for a great many years past the said freehold premises, and the yearly rents thereof, had been under the direction, control and administration of the churchwardens for the time being of the parish of Wick : ham Market, and had been managed, applied and disposed of by them accordingly, subject to the superintendence, direction and approbation of the parish in vestry assembled and he was of opinion, that as well the said freehold as the said copyhold hereditaments and premises were, under the provisions of a certain act of parliament made and passed in the fifty-ninth year of the reign of King George the Third, intituled "An Act for the Relief of the Poor" (a), vested in the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of Wickham Market, subject, however, to the several charitable uses for which the same heredita (a) The 17th section alone is applicable. "And be it further enacted, that all buildings, lands and hereditaments, which shall be purchased, hired, or taken on lease by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of any parish, by the authority and for any of the purposes of this act, shall be conveyed, demised and assured to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of every such parish respectively, and their successors, in trust for the parish; and such churchwardens and overseers of the poor and their successors, shall and may, and they are hereby empowered to accept, take and hold, in the nature of a body corporate, for and on behalf of the parish, all such buildings, lands and hereditaments, and also all other buildings, lands and hereditaments belonging to such parish; and in all actions, suits, indictments and other proceedings for or in relation to any such buildings, lands or hereditaments, or the rent thereof, or for or in relation to any other buildings, lands or hereditaments, belonging to such parish, or the rent thereof, and in all actions and proceedings upon or in relation to any bond to be given for the faithful execution of the office of an assistant overseer, it shall be sufficient to name the churchwardens and overseers of the poor for the time being, describing them as the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parish for which they shall act, and naming such parish; and no action or suit, indictment or other proceeding, shall cease, abate, or be discontinued, quashed, defeated or impeded, by the death of the churchwardens and overseers named in such proceeding, or the deaths or death of any of them, or by their removal or the removal of any of them from, or the expiration of, their respective offices." ments and premises were so devised, granted and bequeathed, as aforesaid, and therefore he had not proceeded upon that part of the order which directed him to appoint trustees thereof. Upon further directions, Doe v. Hiley, 10 Barnwall & Cresswell, 885; and Woodcock v. Gibson, 4 Barnwall & Cresswell, 462, were relied on in support of the Master's Report. The VICE-CHANCELLOR.-It does not appear to me that the statute 59 Geo. 3, c. 12, s. 17, extends to land, the profits of which are applicable to other purposes than in aid of the poor-rate and church-rate. I doubt whether the Court of King's Bench, in Doe v. Hiley, was right in holding that lands given for purposes similar to those for which church-rates are raised, ought to be considered as comprehended by the general words used in the section in question. But it is not necessary for me to determine that point. As regards the copyhold lands there is the land by copy of further objection, that a corporation cannot hold lands by copy of court roll, as the consequence would be to deprive the lord as well of suit and service as of his fines. The case of Woodcock v. Gibson does not touch the point under consideration. A corporation cannot hold court-roll. Declare that the legal estate in the freehold and copyhold estates in the pleadings mentioned did not vest in the churchwardens and overseers of Wickham Market, and refer it back to the Master to review his Report. Mr. Cooper and Mr. Anderdon, for the relators. Sir W. Horne, for the defendants. BERNAL v. Bernal. L. C. February 28th. 1838. abroad for the GASPARD FRANCIS BERNAL, a Spanish Jew, carrying on Charity of an business both at London and Amsterdam, died in the latter alien domiciled city in the year 1696, having made a will containing the relief of male following bequest: descendants of his nephews, and female deand male their scendants of his have nieces, esta male children A bequest to claiming solely through males. Recourse to foreign law for the construction instrument may No. 1. Item, I order that the effects which I in the India and African Company of London, and profits, shall be applied to the performance of this my blished here. will, and what shall remain, be it little or much, it shall be put into stock in the Chamber of Zealand, whose divi- (descendants) in a foreign will dends, and those of London, with the interest of 12007. in held to mean descendants that of the African at London, shall be applied to keep the capital entire; except that it should happen to appear to my executors that any of the relations hereinafter named should be reduced to want, in which case all the divi- of a foreign dends or interest shall be applied to those in necessity, sometimes be which are, Jacob Levi Gomez, Abraham and Jacob de dispensed with. Isaac Bernal, Isaac de Jacob Bernal, Benjamin Bernal, and also Rachel Louzada, Lea de Castro, and Ester Franco, if they or their children shall come to want; and, in like manner, the male children of the above named men ; also included in this clause, Lea, Rachel, and Ester, of Jacob Bernal my brother, and their children, whom God prosper they may not come to want this. And it is also my will, that when it shall happen that any female orphan of my generation, being Jews, are to be married, there shall be given to them 1000 guilders dowry, out of the said interest by the votes of the executors of my will, and the grandsons and great-grandsons of the race of my father, who is in glory, that shall be found living in Judaism, which my executors shall perform, and when any die, shall name others in their place. No. 2. I name for my heirs, Abraham de Isaac Bernal, and his brother Jacob and Benjamin Bernal my nephews, in equal parts; I name for my executors of my testament and this my will Jacob Levi Gomez and Abra |