county next after the rendition of said order, determination and decree, if said term do not commence within sixty days of said time, and if so, then at said term or at the next succeeding term of the said court in the same county.

SEC. 17. Such appeal must be claimed by the aggrieved party within forty days next after such order, decree or determination shall have been made; and bond shall then be given to said court of probate, with sufficient surety, satisfactory to the said court appealed from, or to the clerk thereof, if said court shall not then be in session, to prosecute such appeal with effect, or in default thereof to pay all intervening costs and damages, and such costs as the supreme court shall tax against the appellant.

SEC. 18. The person so appealing shall, within ten days after giving bond as provided in the preceding section, file his reasons of appeal in the office of the clerk of the court appealed to; and shall cause the adverse party to be served with a copy thereof, and to be cited at least ten days before the sitting of the court appealed to, that such party may prepare to answer the same.

SEC. 19. Appeals shall be proceeded upon at the term of the said supreme court at which they shall be entered. If a matter of fact be in controversy, the same shall be tried by a jury, if either party request it.

SEC. 20. If the party appealing give bond as aforesaid, but shall neglect to prosecute said appeal in manner aforesaid, the said supreme court, upon the complaint of any person interested in the order, determination and decree appealed from, may affirm the same and pass such further decree or order as may be necessary to carry the same into full effect.

SEC. 21. In case any order, decree or determination of any court of probate shall be appealed from, the operation of such order or decree shall be wholly suspended until the same shall be affirmed by the supreme court: provided, however, that if the decree shall be for granting letters testamentary, of administration or guardianship, the executor, administrator or guardian, on giving bond according to law, shall have power to collect, receive and take possession of all the rights, credits and estates of the testator, intestate or ward, which by law he could have collected, received or taken possession of provided no appeal had been made; and to take proper care of the ward and his family during the pendency of said appeal.

SEC. 22. The municipal court of the city of Providence is hereby declared to be a probate court within said city; and

shall have and execute all the powers conferred, and be subject to all the duties imposed by this act, or which hereafter may be conferred or imposed by any act on courts of probate in this state.

An Act in relation to Wills of Real and Personal Estate.

SECTION

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. Every person being upwards of twenty-one years of age, and of sane mind, not being a married woman,

and being lawfully seized of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, in his own right, in fee simple, fee tail, or for the life of any other person, or for any other term of time than his own life, shall have a right to give, devise and dispose of the same, by last will or testament, in writing, to and among his children, or others, as he shall think fit; and he may also devise any lands, tenements or hereditaments, acquired subsequently to the execution of his will, provided his intention to devise the same appears by the express terms of his will: provided, that no person seized in fee simple shall have a right to devise any estate in fee tail for a longer time than to the children of the first devisee; and a devise for life to any person and to the children or issue generally of such devisee, in fee simple, shall not vest a fee tail estate in the first devisee, but an estate for life only; and the remainder shall, on his decease, vest in his children or issue generally, agreeably to the direction in such will.

SEC. 2. All devises and bequests of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, shall be in writing, and signed by the party so devising the same, or by some person in his presence and by his express direction; and shall be attested and subscribed in the presence of the devisor, by three or more witnesses, or else shall be utterly void and of no effect.

SEC. 3. No devise or bequest in writing of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, or any clause thereof, shall be revocable otherwise than by a marriage of the testator subsequent to the date thereof, or by some other will or codicil in writing, or other writing declaring the same, or by burning, cancelling, tearing or obliterating the same, by the testator himself, or in his presence and by his direction and consent; but all devises of lands and tenements shall remain and continue in full force until the same be burned, cancelled, torn or obliterated by the testator, or by his direction, in manner aforesaid; or unless the same be altered by some other will or codicil or other writing of the devisor, signed in the presence of three or more witnesses, declaring such alteration.

SEC. 4. Every person being upwards of eighteen years of age, and of sane mind, shall have a right to give and dispose of all his goods, chattels and other personal estate, of every kind, by last will and testament, in writing, in the same manner as he is authorized by this act, if upwards of twenty-one years of age, to dispose of real estate: provided, however, that no married woman shall make any last will and testament except of that or some portion of the personal estate secured to her by the act concerning the property of married women;

and no will or testament of any goods or chattels or other personal estate shall be valid and effectual to convey the same, unless such will or testament shall be in writing, and signed and executed in the manner prescribed in this act for the execution of wills of real estate; nor shall any will of goods, chattels or other personal estate of any kind be revocable, in any other manner than is herein before prescribed for the revocation of wills or testaments of real estate provided, nevertheless, that any soldier in actual military service, or any mariner or seaman being at sea, may dispose of his personal estate by will, as he might heretofore have done; any thing in this act to the contrary notwithstanding.

SEC. 5. The widow of any testator in whose will provision is made for said widow in lieu of her dower, shall, in case of her non-acceptance of that provision, signify the same in writing to the court of probate, within one year from the probate of the will.

SEC. 6. When any child shall be born after the execution of his father's or mother's will, without having any provision made for him in such will, he shall have a right and interest in the estate of his father or mother, in like manner as if the father or mother had died intestate, and the same shall be assigned to him accordingly.

SEC. 7. All such estate, real or personal, as is not devised or bequeathed in the last will and testament of any person, hereafter to be proved, shall be distributed in the same manner as if it were an intestate estate.

SEC. 8. When any child, grandchild or other person having a devise or bequest of real or personal estate, shall die before the testator, leaving a lineal descendant, such descendant shall take the estate, real or personal, as devisee or legatee, in the same way and manner as such devisee would have done in case he had survived the testator.

SEC. 9. If any person hath attested or shall attest the execution of any will or codicil, to whom any beneficial devise, legacy, estate, gift, or appointment of, or affecting any real or personal estate, other than and except charges on lands, tenements, or hereditaments, for the payment of any debts, shall be thereby given or made, such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment, shall, so far only as concerns such person attesting the execution of such will or codicil, or any person claiming under him, be utterly void; and such person shall be admitted as a witness to the execution of such will or codicil, such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift or apportionment, notwithstanding.

SEC. 10. In case, by any will or codicil already made, or hereafter to be made, any lands, tenements or hereditaments are or shall be charged with any debt, and any creditor whose debt is so charged hath attested or shall attest the execution of such will or codicil, every such creditor, notwithstanding such charge, shall be admitted as a witness to the execution of such will or codicil.

SEC. 11. In case any devisee or legatee as aforesaid, who hath attested the execution of any will or codicil already made, or who shall attest the execution of any which shall hereafter be made, shall die in the life time of the testator, or before the probate of such will, such devisee or legatee shall be deemed to have been a legal witness to the execution of such will or codicil, within the intent of this act, notwithstanding such legacy or bequest.

SEC. 12. If any executor of the will of any person deceased, knowing of his being so named and appointed, shall not, within thirty days next after the decease of the testator, cause such will to be proved and recorded in the clerk of probate's office of the same town where the deceased person last dwelt, or present the said will, and in writing declare his refusal, every executor so neglecting his trust and duty in that behalf (without just excuse made and accepted by the court of probate for such delay,) shall forfeit the sum of ten dollars a month from and after the expiration of the said thirty days, until he shall cause probate of such will to be made, or present the same as aforesaid; every such forfeiture to be recovered by action of debt, in any court of competent jurisdiction in the same county; one moiety for him who shall sue for the same, and the other moiety for the use of the legatees named in the said will.

SEC. 13. Upon the neglect or refusal of the executor named in any will to present the same for probate, the court of probate shall commit administration of the estate of the deceased to one or more of the devisees or legatees, or in case of their refusal, to one or more of the principal creditors, or to such other person as they shall think fit, being an inhabitant of the state.

SEC. 14. If any person shall alienate or embezzle any of the goods, chattels or other personal estate of any deceased person, before he shall have taken out letters of administration, and exhibited a true inventory of all the known estate of the person deceased, every such person shall stand chargeable and be liable to the creditors and other persons aggrieved, as being an executor in his own wrong.