CHAP.
XXXIX.
Administrator,
&c. to
exhibit Inventories
within Three
Months, and
Accounts
within 12
Months,
failing herein,
the Judge
may issue Attachments
against
them,
and after two
Attachments,
may revoke
the first Administration.
The Surplusage
of every
Intestate's
Estate,
shall be distributed,
viz.
One Third to
the Widow,
and the Remainder
equally among
the
Children, &c.
such excepted
as have received
Portions
in the Intestate's
Life
Term.
But if such
Portions be
not equal to
the Share by
Distribution,
then shall
their Estates
be made
equal with
the others.
But the Heir
at Law shall
have a full
Share notwithstanding
any Lands by
Descent, &c.
If there be no
Children,
&c. the Widow
to have
one Half, &c. |
by and with the Advice and Consent aforesaid, First, that the
Judge for Probate
of Wills, and granting Administrations, shall call all Executors and
Administrators
to exhibit Inventories within Three Months, and render Accounts
within Twelve Months, next after Administration committed, of the Personal
Estates of such deceased Persons: And f any Administrator shall
fail to exhibit
such Inventory, or give an Account within the Time aforesaid, being
lawfully thereunto cited, that then the said Judge, if he see just
Cause, may
issue forth Process of Attachment against such Administrator, to oblige
him,
her, or them, as well to exhibit an Inventory, or render Account as
aforesaid,
as to answer for his, her, or their Contempt of such former Process,
after the usual Manner. And in case such Administrator shall
not render such
Account, or exhibit such Inventory, until two several Attachments shall
be
returned to two separate Courts against such Administrators, wither
that the
Administrator hath been attached, or is not sound in the County where
they
live, it shall and may be lawful for the said Judge to revoke the first
Letters
of ADministration to such Administrator committed, and shall grant
Administration,
de Bonis non administratis, to such as shall have the next Right
to
such Administration; which said Administrator shall be duly qualified
as usual,
and give Security, as all other Administrators do, and shall sue and
implead the
former Administrator before the Judge aforesaid, for the exhibiting
an Inventory,
and rendering an Account of the Estate of the Intestate; or if he shall
see fit, shall make Application to such Judge or Commissary-General,
for the
Assignment of the Bond entered into by the former Administrator and
his
Sureties, and shall or may put the same Bond in Suit against such Administrator
and his Sureties (if need be) to be relieved thereon, for any Neglect
or
Male-Administration by such former Administrator done or suffered,
of such
deceased Person's Estates.
IV. And be it
further Enacted, by the Authority
aforesaid, by and with the
Advice and Consent aforesaid,
That when a full Account s made by any Administrator,
of any Intestate's Estate, the Judge
aforesaid shall make, or cause
to be made Distribution of the Surplusage
of such Estate, in Manner and
Form following, (That is to say,)
One Third Part of the said Surplusage
to the Wife of the Intestate, and
all the Residue, by equal Portions, to and
amongst the Children of such Persons
dying Intestate, and such Persons as legally
represent such Children, in case
any of the said Children be then dead,
other than such Child or Children
(not being Heir at law) or who shall have
any Estate by the Settlement of
the Intestate, or shall be advanced by the Intestate
in his Life Time, by Portion or Portions equal to the Share which
shall by such Distribution be allotted to the other Children to whom
such
Distribution is to be made.
V. And in
case any Child (other than the Heir at Law) who shall have an
Estate by Settlement, from the said Intestate, in his Life Time, by Portion
not equal to the Share which will be due to the other Children by such
Distribution
as aforesaid, then so much of the Surplusage of the Estate of such
Intestate to be distributed to such Child or Children as shall have any
Land
by Settlement from the Intestate, or were advanced in the Life TIme of
the
Intestate, as shall make the Estate of all the said Children equal, as
near as
can be estimated: But the Heir at law, notwithstanding any Land that
he
shall have by Descent, or otherwise, from the Intestate, is to have an
equal
Part in the Distribution with the rest of the Children, without any Consideration
of the Value of the Land which he hath be Descent, or otherwise,
from the Intestate.
VI.
And in
case there be no Child or Children, nor any legal Representatives
of them, then one Moiety of the said Estate to be allowed to the * Wife
of the Intestate, the Residue of the said Estate to be distributed equally
to
every of the next of Kindred of the Intestate who are in equal Degree,
and |
