Page:United States Reports, Volume 1.djvu/436

Rh 

1789.

with Laurence Saltar, and, having lived long with him, and no profpect of children, fhe was defirous of making a provifion for an only fifter of the whole blood, to wit, Mary, one of the Leffors of the Plaintiff, whofe hufband, John, the other Leffor, was confiderably reduced in his circumftances. It then appeared, that Mrs. Saltar, while upon a vifit, with her hufband, to his brother, John Saltar, who refided at fome diftance, was taken fick; and, after a converfation relative to her eftate, it was agreed by her hufband and herfelf, that it fhould be fettled on them for their lives, and for the life of the furvivor of them, and, afterwards, that it fhould go to her fifter, the faid Mary Thompʃon, for life, and the heirs of her body lawfully begotten ; and for want of fuch heirs to the children of her three fifters of the half blood. Mr. Saltar, accordingly, procured a deed of the above effect to be drawn by a Conveyancer in Philadelphia:  but the fecond remainder being expreffed to be, “ for the iʃʃue oƒ the bodies of the three half fifters, ” one of whom was unmarried, Mrs. Saltar, when the inftrument was read to her, though the expreffion indelicate with refpect to her three half fifters, and, for that reafon, perfifted in refufing to execute it, notwithftanding all the perfuafion of her friends. Upon this refufal, her hufband propofed to her, that a deed fhould be drawn from them to his brother John, who, with his wife, fhould reconvey the premiffes to him (the faid Lawrence) and herfelf, as jointenants, in fee; and he promifed that as foon as he got home, he would make his will, or by fome other means, fettle the eftate in the manner that they had before projected. Mrs. Saltar hefitated at this propofition ; but, on her fifter, Elizabeth Saltar's  telling her, that “ ʃhe might rely upon him ; ƒor,  iƒ there was a man in the world; who could be truʃted in ʃuch a caʃe, it was him ; ” and on her hubfand's  requefting her to comply, declaring, that  “ iƒ there was ƒaith or truth in man, he would honeʃtly perform what he again promiʃed : ”     fhe executed the deed to John Saltar,  who, with his wife, reconveyed the eftated, according to the previous ftipulation. Mrs. Saltar died in the year 1781, about fix months after the deeds were figned ; and her hufband died, interftate and without iffue, about eighteen months after her decade.– Mr. Lawrence Saltar always, during his life time, managed the eftate that had been his wife's, as if it belonged to the Leffors of the Plaintiff: In his laft ficknefs, indeed, when near expiring, he told his brother, that he was very uneafy on account of his leaving no will ; and foon after this declaration he lofts his reafon.

The preceding facts were proved by John Saltar and Elizabeth, his wife ; together with the confeffion of the Defendant, that the Leffors of the Plaintiff had the title in equity, although he had it in law. There was, indeed, a contradiction, in fome refpect, of the cafe of the Leffors of the Plaintiff, in the teftimony of Abel James, who related a converfation which he had with Lawrence and Dorthy Saltar a few days before the deeds were executed, at which time Rh