ed after the 11. When the will of any person who shall die after the sixth Estates acquirday of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, making of a contains a devise in any form of words of all such real estate Will may pass as the testator shall die seized or possessed of, or of any part where such in- . by the Will or proportion thereof, such will shall be valid and effectual tention is exto pass any land that may have been or may be acquired by pressed. the devisor after the making of such will, in the same manner as if the title thereto had been acquired before the making thereof. 4 W. 4, c. 1, s. 49. land shall be estate as the testator had in 12. Whenever land is or shall be devised in a will made A devise of by any person who shall die after the sixth day of March, one taken to carry thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, it shall be considered as large an that the devisor intended to devise all such estate as he was seized of in the same land, whether fee simple or otherwise, the land, unless unless it appears upon the face of such will that he intended a contrary into devise only an estate for life, or other estate less than he pressed. was seized of at the time of making the will containing such tention be ex 13. Any will affecting land executed after the sixth day of Witnesses March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, in the pre- need not subsence of and attested by two or more witnesses, shall have the presence of the same validity and effect as if executed in the presence of and testator. attested by three witnesses; and it shall be sufficient if such witnesses subscribe their names in presence of each other, although their names may not be subscribed in presence of the testator. 4 W. 4, c. 1, s. 51. INTERPRETATION CLAUSE. Act. 14. The words and expressions in the foregoing sec- Meaning of tions and in the next seven sections numbered from fifteen to words in this twenty-one inclusive, which in their ordinary signification have a more confined or a different meaning, shall, in all such sections, except where the nature of the provision or the context thereof shall exclude such construction, be interpreted as follows, that is to say the word "land" shall extend to messuages, Land. and all other hereditaments, whether corporeal or incorpo real, and to money to be laid out in the purchase of land, and to chattels and other personal property transmissible to heirs, and also to any share of the same hereditaments and properties, or any of them, and to any estate of inheritance, or estate for any life or lives, or other estate transmissible to heirs, and to any possibility, right or title of entry or action, and any other interest capable of being inherited, and whether the same estates, possibilities, rights, titles and interests, or any of them, shall be in possession, reversion, remainder or contingency; and the words "the Purchaser. purchaser" shall mean the person who last acquired the land otherwise than by descent or than by any partition, by the effect of which the land shall have become part of or descendible, in the same manner as other land acquired by descent; Descent. Descendants. Persons last entitled. Assurance. Rent. Number and gender. The foregoing operate restro spectively in certain cases. descent; and the word "descent" shall mean the title to inherit land by reason of consanguinity, as well where the heir shall be an ancestor or collateral relation, as where he shall be a child or other issue; and the expression "descendants of any ancestor " shall extend to all persons who must trace their descent through such ancestor; and the expression "the person last entitled to land" shall extend to the last person who had a right thereto, whether he did or did not obtain the possession or the receipt of the rents and profits thereof; and the word "assurance" shall mean any deed or instrument (other than a will) by which any land shall be conveyed or transferred at law or in equity; and the word "rent" shall extend to all annuities and periodical sums of money charged upon or payable out of any land; and the person through whom another person is said to claim," shall mean any person by, through or under, or by the act of whom the person so claiming became entitled to the estate or interest claimed, as heir, issue in tail, tenant by the courtesy of England, tenant in dower, successor, special or general occupant, executor, administrator, legatee, husband, assignee, appointee, devisee or otherwise; and every word importing the singular number only, shall extend and be applied to everal persons or things, as well as to one person or thing; and svery word importing the masculine gender only, shall extend end be applied to a female, as well as to a male. 4 W. 4, c. 1, a. 59. $DESCENTS BETWEEN 1ST JULY, 1834, AND 1ST JANUARY, 1852. 15. The foregoing sections of this Act shall not have operasections not to tion retrospectively to a period of time anterior to the sixth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, so as, by force of any of their provisions, to render any title valid, which in regard to any particular estate had prior to that day been adjudged, or has been or may be in any suit which was depending on that day adjudged invalid, on account of any defect, imperfection, matter or thing, which is by such Sections altered, supplied or remedied; but in every such case the law in regard to any such defect, imperfection, matter or thing, shall, as applied to such title, be deemed and taken to be as if those Sections of this Act had not been passed. 4 W. 4, c. 1, s. 60. Relations ofthis Act as to descents between the 1st July, 1834, and 31st December, 1851. 16. As respects every descent between the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, and the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, both days included, and as respects any descent not included or provided for in the sections of this Act, numbered from twentythree to forty-nine, both included, the following sections num bered from seventeen to twenty-one, both included, shall apply retrospectively to the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, and also prospectively, as the case may be, any shall be construed as if the same had been passed on the said first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four. see 14, 15 V. c. 6, s. 1. 17. No brother or sister shall be considered to inherit Brothers and immediately from his or her brother or sister, but every descent sisters shall from a brother or sister shall be traced through the parent. 4 W. 4, c. 1, s. 4. trace descent through pa rents. 18. Every lineal ancestor shall be capable of being heir Lineal ancestor to any of his issue, and in any case where there is no may be heir in preference to issue of the purchaser, his nearest lineal ancestor shall be his collateral perheir in preference to any person who would have been entitled to sons claiming inherit, either by tracing his descent through such lineal through him. ancestor, or in consequence of there being no descendant of such lineal ancestor, so that the father shall be preferred to a brother or sister, and a more remote lineal ancestor to any of his issue, other than a nearer lineal ancestor or his issue. 4 W. 4, c. 1, s. 5. 19. None of the maternal ancestors of the person from The male line whom the descent is to be traced, nor any of their descendants, to be preferred. shall be capable of inheriting until all his paternal ancestors and their descendants have failed; and no female paternal ancestor of such person, nor any of her descendants shall be capable of inheriting, until all his male paternal ancestors and their descendants have failed, and no female maternal ancestor of such person, nor any of her descendants shall be capable of inheriting, until all his male maternal ancestors and their descendants have failed. 4 W. 4, c. 1, s. 6. mote male an mother of the 20. Where there shall be a failure of male paternal ances- The mother of tors of the person from whom the descent is to be traced, and the more retheir descendants, the mother of his more remote male pater- cestor to be nal ancestor, or her descendants, shall be the heir or heirs of preferred to the such person, in preference to the mother of a less remote less remote male paternal ancestor, or her descendants; and when there male ancestor. shall be a failure of male paternal ancestors of such person, and their descendants, the mother of his more remote male maternal ancestor, and her descendants, shall be the heir or heirs of such person, in preference to the mother of a less remote male maternal ancestor and her descendants. 4 W. 4, c. 1, s. 7. whole blood of 21. Any person related to the person from whom the Half blood to descent is to be traced by the half blood, shall be capable of inherit after the being his heir, and the place in which any such relation by the same dethe half blood shall stand in the order of inheritance, so as to gree. be entitled to inherit, shall be next after any relation in the same degree of the whole blood and his issue, where the common ancestor shall be a male, and next after the common ancestor when such common ancestor shall be a female, so that the brother of the half blood on the part of the father, shall inherit AAA Descents since 1852. inherit next after the sisters of the whole blood on the part of the father and their issue, and the brother of the half blood on the part of the mother, shall inherit next after the mother. 4 W. 4, c. 1, s. 8. DESCENTS FROM AND AFTER FIRST OF JANUARY, 1852. 22. The following sections numbered from twenty-three to the 1st January, forty-nine, both included, shall apply retrospectively to the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two inclusive, and also prospectively, as the case may be, and shall be construed as if the same had been passed on the said first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. 14, 15 V. c. 6, s. 1. How real estate of an intestate dying after 1st January, 1852, shall descend. As to descend degrees of consanguinity. year 23. Whenever on or after the first day of January, in the of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, any person shall die, seized in fee simple or for the life of another of any real estate in Upper Canada, without having lawfully devised the same, such real estate shall descend or pass by way of succession in manner following, that is to say: Firstly To his lineal descendants, and those claiming by or under them, per stirpes; Secondly To his father; Thirdly To his mother and; Fourthly To his collateral relatives; Subject in all cases to the rules and regulations hereinafter prescribed. 14, 15 V. c. 6, s. 1. 24. If the intestate shall leave several descendants in the ants in equal direct line of lineal descent, and all of equal degree of consanguinity to such intestate, the inheritance shall descend to such persons in equal parts, however remote from the intestate the common degree of consanguinity may be. 14, 15 V. c. 6, If some children be living and leaving issue. others dead s. 2. 25. If any one or more of the children of such intestate be living, and any one or more be dead, the inheritance shall descend to the children who are living, and to the descendants of such children as have died, so that each child who shall be living shall inherit such share as would have descended to him if all the children of the intestate who have died leaving issue, had been living; and so that the descendants of each child who shall be dead shall inherit in equal shares the share which their parent would have received if living. 14, 15 V. c. 6, s. 3. 26. The rule of descent prescribed in the last preceding sec- Same rule as to tion shall apply in every case where the descendants of the in- other descendants in unequal testate, entitled to share in the inheritance, shall be of unequal degrees of condegrees of consanguinity to the intestate, so that those who are sanguinity. in the nearest degree of consanguinity shall take the shares which would have descended to them, had all the descendants in the same degree of consanguinity who have died leaving issue, been living, and so that the issue of the descendants who have died, shall respectively take the shares which their parents if living would have received. 14, 15 V. c. 6, s. 4. cendant's rights 27. In case the intestate dies without lawful descendants, If the intestate and leaving a father, then the inheritance shall go to such leave no desfather, unless the inheritance came to the intestate on the of father, mopart of his mother, and such mother be living; and if such ther, &c. mother be dead, the inheritance descending on her part shall go to the father for life, and the reversion to the brothers and sisters of the intestate and their descendants, according to the law of inheritance by collateral relatives hereinafter provided; and if there be no such brothers or sisters, or their descendants, living, such inheritance shall descend to the father. 14, 15 V. c. 6, s. 5. to inherit. 28. If the intestate shall die without descendants and leav- If there be no ing no father, or leaving a father not entitled to take the father entitled inheritance under the last preceding section, and leaving a mother and a brother or sister, or the descendant of a brother or sister, then the inheritance shall descend to the mother during her life, and the reversion to such brother or sister of the intestate as may be living, and the descendants of such as may be dead, according to the same law of inheritance hereinafter provided; and if the intestate in such case leaves no brother or sister, nor any descendant of any brother or sister, the inheritance shall descend to the mother. 14, 15 V. c. 6, s. 6. or mother. 29. If there be no father or mother capable of inheriting And if there be the estate, it shall descend in the cases hereinafter specified to neither father the collateral relatives of the intestate; and if there be several of such relatives, all of equal degree of consanguinity to the intestate, the inheritance shall descend to them in equal parts, however remote from the intestate the common degree of consanguinity may be. 14, 15 V. c. 6, s. 7. sisters and their 30. If all the brothers and sisters of the intestate be living, Succession of the inheritance shall descend to such brothers and sisters; and brothers and if any one or more of them be living and any one or more be descendants. dead, then to the brothers and sisters and every of them who are living, and to the descendants of such brothers and sisters as have died, so that each brother or sister who may be living, shall inherit such share as would have descended to him or her, if all the brothers or sisters of the intestate who have died |