Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/386



378 T. C. ELLIOTT

State of New York, )

)ss. Chatitauqua County. )

Be it remembered that at a Surrogate's Court held at the Village of Mayville in the County of Chautauqua, on the twenty eighth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty six, the last Will and Testament of John Day late of the Territory of Oregon in the United States of America, deceased (a copy whereof is hereunto annexed) was admitted to probate after a citation to the next of kin (there being no widow of said deceased) to the said deceased issued, served, returned and filed according to law.

Whereupon at the place and on the day aforesaid the fol- lowing witnesses after having been duly sworn by the said Surrogate, testified as follows, to-wit : after proof of legal service of the said citation on the next of kin to the said de- ceased Donald MacKenzie after having been duly sworn by the said Surrogate, testified as follows : that there was a promissory note of the said deceased came into the County of Chautauqua since the death of the said deceased, and that John Day the said deceased died on the sixteenth day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty, on the south side of the River Columbia in the Territory of Oregon, in the United States, which was the place of his resi- dence at the time of his death ; and this deponent further says that William Rettson and James Birnie the two subscribing witnesses to the last Will and Testament of the said John Day deceased, now reside out of the State of New York, accord- ing to the belief and knowledge of this deponent, and that he is well acquainted with the hand writing of the said William Rettson and James Birnie, and that the signatures of the said witnesses to the said Will are the proper signatures of the said William Rettson and James Birnie who signed their names to the said will of said deceased, at the request of said decedent, and in the presence of the said deceased, and in the presence of each other, and this deponent further says that he is well