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Lessee of Henry Brewer, Plaintiff in Error, vs. Jacob Blougher and Daniel Blougher, Defendants in Error, The U.S. 178 (1840)

handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0078 and id is 1 raw text is: SUPREME COURT., TaE LESSEE oF HENRY BREWER, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR, VS. JACOR BLOUGHER AND DANIEL BLOUGHER, DEFENDANTS IN ERROR. Construction of the act of the legislature of Maryland, passed December session, 1825, entitled, An Act relating to Illegitimate Children, which provides that the illegitimate child or children of any female, and the issue of any such ciild or children, are declared capable in law to take and inherit both real and personal estate from their mother end from each other, and from the descendants of each other, as the case may be, in like man- ner as if born in lawful wedlock. J. S., who had several, children who were the children of an incestuous connection, conveyed a tract of land in the state of Maryland to one of those children. The grantee died intes- tate and without issue, seized in fee of the land. Two brothers and one .sister of this incestuous intercoyrse survived him. Held, that under the act of Maryland, relating to Illegitimate Children, they inherited the estate of their deceased brother. It is undoubtedly the duty of the Court to ascertain 'the meaning of the legislature from the words used in the statute, and the ubject matter to which it relates; and to restrain ita operation Within narrower limits than its words import, if the Cou't are satisfied that the literal meaning of its language would extend to cases which the legislature never designed to include in it. According.to the pf'inciples of the common law, an illegiti- mate child is filius nullius, and can have no father known to the law : and when the legislature speaks in general terms of children of that description, without making any exceptions, the Court is bound to suppose they design to include the whole class. AN a~tion of ejectment was instituted by the plaintiff in, error, a citizen of Pelisy!vania, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Maryland, for the recovery of a tract of land situated in Allegany county, in the state of Maryland, called Part of Grassy Cabin. The following were the facts of the case, as agreed upon by the parties to the suit. John Sloan, late of Allegany county, was twice married ; by his first wife he had but one child, namely, Mary Sloan; and by his second wife he had the following children, namely, William Sloan, John Sloan, Elizabeth Sloan, Peggy Sloan, Sally Sloan, and Jane Sloan: and that the plaintiff's lessor is the husband of the said Elizabeth. * After the death of his second wife, John Sloan lived and c.ha- bited with and married Mary Sloan, his daughter, by his first wife, and had by her the following children, viz.: William Sloan, John Joseph Sloan, Mary Sloan, Jesse Sloan. and David Sloan; and William Sloan is since dead. The said John Sloan, the father, was many years ago seized and possessed of a tract of land lying in Allegany county, Maryland, called GrassyCabin, containing four hundred twenty-seven and one-fourth acres, to which tract he had an undisputed legal title. * The said John Sloan being so seized and possessed of the said tract of land, conveyed the same for a valuable consideration, by a deed of bargain and sale, duly executed, acknowledged, and re- /corded according to law, to John Joseph Sloan, and that the said

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