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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0359 and id is 1 raw text is: DICKENSON V. WRITE
tratrix throughout. This deponent himself was actually examined as a witness on
the trial, at a court of common law held at Newhaven, of a (489] suit (the particulars
of which he also deposes to brought against this Elizabeth, as widow and adminis-
tratrix of Peter Harrison's effects, and in that character solely. Even the inventory
itself said to be exhibited by a Mary Harrison, as administratrix, furnishes, in con-
junction with the affidavits, a pregnant proof that the real administratrix was this
Elizabeth. The inventory specifies a negro man named Apollo; a negro woman
named Lucy; and two paintings, one of the Crucifix (meaning, I suppose, the
crucifixion) and the other of St. Francis. Now it distinctly appears from the
affidavits of Mrs. Thomas herself, of Mr. Curgenven, and of a Miss Brenton, that
Mrs. Thomas's grandmother, Elizabeth, actually had in her service and possession this
very negro and negress, and these very pictures so specified in this inventory : how
otherwise acquired than as the administratrix of Peter Harrison, and consequently
the person who exhibited the inventory, it would be difficult plausibly to con-
jecture even.
I, therefore, reject this petition, and I think that I am bound to reject it with
costs. In renewing their application to the Court by petition, upon such insufficient
grounds, Maud and Pickwell seem to me not to have exercised a sound discretion;
the effect of which, in strictness, undoubtedly is to render them liable to Mrs. Thomas
in the costs of this proceeding. It may be commendable, perhaps even prudent, in
Mrs. Thomas, under all the circumstances, to waive her costs; but I hold that the
Court is bound, in strictness, to give her the means of recovering these from Maud
and Pickwell, if so disposed.
Petition rejected.
[490] DICKENSON v. WHITE. Prerogative Court, Trinity Term, 4th Session, 1823.
-A. dies, leaving, by will, his wife B. sole executrix and universal legatee.
Allegation propounding a codicil to A.'s will, found subsequent to B.'s death, on
behalf of a legatee (B.'s executor refusing to take administration of A.'s unad-
ministered effects with his will, and this codicil annexed) admitted to proof.
(On the admission of an allegation.)
John Whitehead, the party deceased in this cause, died on the 28th of February,
1819. In the month of July in that year probate of his will, bearing date on the
3d of November, 1817, was taken by his widow and relict, Hester Mary Whitehead,
as sole executrix. In virtue of that probate the widow, who was also, under this
will, universal legatee, collected and administered the deceased's personal estate and
effects, valued, after payment of his debts and funeral expences, at about 16001.
On the 9th of February, 1823, Hester Mary Whitehead, widow of the deceased,
died, leaving several testamentary papers, probate of which was duly taken by James
White, party in the cause, her sole executor. Subsequent, however, to the death of
Hester Mary Whitehead, a codicil (so said) to the will of John Whitehead, deceased,
was first discovered. But White refusing, when called upon so to do, as executor
of the wife, to accept letters of administration, with the will and codicil annexed,
of the effects left unadministered by the wife of her late husband, the party deceased
in this cause, whom she, the wife, had survived and represented as above-the latter,
this codicil, was propounded in an allegation which now stood for admission, on behalf
of Mary Dickenson, one of the universal legatees for life named in the said codicil, the
other party in the cause-the party, namely, promoting it against [491] White, as
sole executor of Hester Mary Whitehead, the widow and relict of the deceased.
This allegation propounding the codicil, after pleading the factum of the will in
November, 1817, and that of the codicil (alleged) bearing date on the 31st of July,
1818 (this last expressly pleaded to be all in the deceased's hand-writing), as also that
probate of such will only was taken by his widow, Hester Mary Whitehead, on the
death of the deceased in 1819, went on to plead, that
Hester Mary Whitehead, the widow and relict of the said John Whitehead, the
testator in this cause, departed this life on or about the 9th day of February, in the
present year 1823-that, immediately after her decease, Alexander Hale Strong, of
Lincoln's Inn, in the county of Middlesex, solicitor, attended at the house of the said
Hester Mary Whitehead, for the purpose of searching for her will; and having there
met John White, party in this cause, and others of the family and friends of the said
deceased, several testamentary papers which had been found were theu read over by
I ADD. 489.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsengr0359&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)