to-wit, on April 10, 1885. Neither Wilson nor Newton Hall, the only witnesses sworn upon the probate of the will, testified to the handwriting of the subscribing witnesses to the will, nor was there any testimony as to the signatures of the subscribing witnesses.

While the circumstances thus referred to justly subject the will and the proceedings for its probate to suspicion, we are not prepared to say that it should be rejected as a valid will on account of these suspicious circumstances alone. But we are of the opinion for the reason hereinafter stated, that such will should not prevail against the deed made to the appellant, Bliss, so far as such deed purported to convey the interests of the brothers and sisters of David William Hall, and others holding under them, who signed said deed.

Section 9 of the statute of this State in regard to wills provides that "all wills, testaments and codicils, or authenticated copies thereof, proven according to the laws of any of the United States, or the territories thereof, or of any country out of the limits of the United States, and touching or concerning estates within this State, accompanied with a certificate of the proper officer or officers that said will, testament, codicil or copy thereof was duly executed and proved, agreeably to the laws and usages of that State or country in which the same was executed, shall be recorded as aforesaid, and shall be good and available in law, in like manner as wills made and executed in this State." (3 Starr & Curt. Ann. Stat.-2d ed.-p. 4040). The words in the last quoted section, "shall be recorded as aforesaid," evidently refer to the recording by the clerk of the county court in a book to be provided by him, as stated in section 2 of the Statute of Wills. (Ibid. p. 4026). Section 9 of the Statute of Wills, as above quoted, is the same as was section 8 in the Revised Statutes of 1845.

On February 14, 1857, an act of the legislature was passed which, with slight changes and additions, appears

now in the Revised Statutes as section 33 of the act in regard to conveyances. Said section 33 of the act in regard to conveyances is as follows: "All original wills duly proved, or copies thereof duly certified, according to law, and exemplifications of the record of foreign wills made in pursuance of the law of Congress in relation to records in foreign States, may be recorded in the same office where deeds and other instruments concerning real estate may be required to be recorded; and the same shall be notice from the date of filing the same for record as in other cases, and certified copies of the record thereof shall be evidenced to the same extent as the certified copies of the record of deeds." (1 Starr & Curt. Ann. Stat. 2d ed.-p. 954). Certainly the following words in section 33, to-wit: "the same shall be notice from the date of filing the same for record as in other cases," were intended to have some meaning. If "exemplifications of the record of foreign wills made in pursuance of the law of Congress in relation to records in foreign States," operate as notice from the date of filing the same for record in the recorder's office of a county in this State, then third persons, acquiring interests in land adverse to the devisees in such wills, cannot be said to have constructive notice of such wills when such exemplifications are not so recorded.

In the case at bar, it is not claimed that the appellant, Bliss, had any actual notice of the existence of the will of David William Hall when he obtained his deed, dated July 3, 1900, and recorded August 12, 1900. There was nothing upon record in the recorder's office of Shelby county, or elsewhere in this State, which would give him constructive notice of the existence of the will of David William Hall when he obtained or recorded his deed. It is true that, on December 17, 1900, what purported to be a certified copy of the will of David William Hall, and of the proceedings for the probate thereof, was recorded in the recorder's office of Shelby county. If the certificate

to the copy, so recorded on December 17, 1900, had been regular and in proper form, the record of it on that day would have been no notice, as the appellant, Bliss, had obtained and recorded his deed theretofore on August 12, 1900. But the record of the copy on December 17, 1900, was no notice, because the certificate attached thereto was not in proper form. Section 9 above quoted provides that the authenticated copy of a foreign will must be accompanied by a certificate that the will was "duly executed and proved, agreeably to the laws and usages of that State or country in which the same was executed." The certificate, attached to the copy recorded on December 17, 1900, did not state that the will of David William Hall was duly executed and proved agreeably to the laws and usages of Nebraska. Its record was, therefore, no notice to the appellant, Bliss. (Lewis v. Barnhart, 145 U. S. 79; Harrison v. Weatherby, 180 Ill. 418).

This precise question was passed upon by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Lewis v. Barnhart, supra. There, section 9 of the act in regard to wills and section 33 of the act in regard to conveyances are quoted, and the following views are expressed by the Federal Supreme Court, to-wit: "It is clear from these statutes that the will of Romeo Lewis, or an authenticated copy thereof, proven according to the laws of Ohio, if accompanied with a certificate of the proper officers that the will was duly executed and proven agreeably to the laws and usages of that State, could, at any time after it took effect, have been recorded in Illinois, and thereby become good and available in that State in like manner as wills there made and executed; and that, from at least the passage of the act of 1857, it would have become, after the filing of the same for record, and in respect to the real estate devised by it, notice as in the cases of deeds conveying real estate. But it is equally clear that the copy of the testator's will, filed and recorded in 1866 in the office of the recorder of Woodford

county, was not authenticated or certified so as to entitle it to record under the above statutes in Illinois. It was not certified to have been executed and proven according to the laws and usages of the State of Ohio, where it was made. * * * It results that the recording in Illinois in 1866 of what purported to be the will of Romeo Lewis was without legal effect, and was not, in law, notice that the lands in dispute were part of those referred to in that will."

As to the copy of the will dated April 10, 1887, the certificate was defective in the same respect as that attached to the copy of the will dated April 10, 1885; and no copy of the will of 1887 was ever recorded in the county court or recorder's office of Shelby county. Upon the trial, however, of this cause in the court below, the solicitors of Annie E. Hall introduced in evidence an authenticated copy of the will of David William Hall and of the proceedings for the probate thereof in Hitchcock county, Nebraska, accompanied by a certificate which certified that the will was duly executed and proven in said court agreeably to the laws and usages of the State of Nebraska. But this exemplified copy, which bore date February 16, 1901, after the special commissioner to whom the cause had been referred had taken all the testimony in the case and submitted his report, was not recorded at all in the recorder's office of Shelby county, Illinois. It is contended on behalf of Annie Hall, that it was properly admitted in evidence, and established the validity of the will of David William Hall, notwithstanding it had never been recorded. This contention is supposed to receive some support from the cases of Shephard v. Carriel, 19 Ill. 313, and Newman v. Willetts, 52 id. 98. In the Shephard case it appeared that the exemplified copy of the foreign will and the proceedings for its probate therein introduced were filed for record in the county court and in the recorder's office before the act of February 14, 1857, was passed; and that the suit there de

cided was begun in 1856 before the passage of the latter act. In addition to this, what was said in the Shephard case, to the effect that it was immaterial when the papers in question were filed, had reference to the filing of the same. in the probate court, and not in the recorder's office, so that, there, the act of February 14, 1857, was not considered or passed upon. In the Newman case there was no question as to the effect of the record of a foreign will as against an interest in land acquired by third persons holding adversely to the devisees under the will. The simple question in the Newman case was whether Mrs. Newman took an interest in the land in Illinois under a will, made by her deceased husband in Louisiana; but no point was made as to her right to hold that interest as against third persons. Therefore, the Shephard and Newman cases are not authority for the position, that a foreign will is valid and of effect, as against third persons without actual notice holding land adversely to it in this State, where no exemplified or properly certified copy of such will has been recorded in this State. Such, substantially, was the holding of this court in Harrison v. Weatherby, supra, and of the Supreme Court of the United States in Lewis v. Barnhart, supra.

In Lewis v. Barnhart, supra, the same contention was made as is made here, namely, that a properly authenticated copy of a valid will was effective when introduced in evidence even though not recorded in this State; and, in that case, the Supreme Court of the United States held as follows: "The contention of the plaintiffs is that, even if this will was not properly recorded in Illinois, it was, nevertheless, evidence as to the title to the lands. (Shephard v. Carriel, 19 Ill. 313; Newman v. Willetts, 52 id. 98; Safford v. Stubbs, 117 id. 389). But this view does not meet the question before us as to whether the record of the will in Woodford county, from and after it was made, was itself notice to those who purchased from Mrs. Lewis. A duly certified copy of the will may be competent evi