ORDERED, That the Testamentary System reported by the Chancellor, in
pursuance of the request of the Legislature, be printed, for consideration, with
the acts of assembly of the last session, agreeably to a report of a committee on that
subject.
                                    By order,                            N.  PINKNEY, Clk. Council.

A Bill, entitled, An act for amending, and reducing into system,
    the laws and regulations concerning last wills and testaments,
    the duties of executors, administrators and guardians, and the
    rights of orphans and other representatives of deceased persons.

WHEREAS the laws and regulations relative tot he estates of deceased
persons, comprehending a great variety of subjects, and interesting to
citizens of every description, not only are become complicated and
difficult to be understood, but are found by experience to be greatly inadequate to
the purposes for which they were framed;

    II.  Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That every provision,
rule or regulation, contained in any act of assembly heretofore passed, or in any
English statute introduced, used or practised under, in this state, which is inconsistent
with, or repugnant to, any thing contained in this act, be and it is hereby
repealed and rendered utterly void and of no effect.

    III.  And be it enacted, That the following rules, orders and regulations, shall
be taken, held and considered, in all courts, tribunals and offices, and by all
judges, justices and officers in this state, to be the law of the land.

    1.  ALL lands, tenements, hereditaments, goods, chattels, personal estate, property,
rights and interest, which might pass by deed, or which would,
in case of the proprietor's dying intestate, descend to, or devolve on, his or her
heirs or other representatives, except estates tail, shall be subject to be disposed of,
transferred and passed, by his or her last will, testament or codicil, under the
following restrictions.

    2.  No will, testament or codicil, shall be effectual to create any interest or
perpetuity, or make any limitation, or appoint any uses, not now permitted by
the constitution or laws of the state.

    3.  No will, testament or codicil, shall be valid and effectual to any purpose
whatever, unless the same be in the language of this state, or in Latin or French,
or in the native language of the party making the same; provided, that any
figures or characters generally used to express numbers, if found in any will or
codicil, shall stand in the place of the words they shall appear to be intended to
represent.

    4.  No will, testament or codicil, shall be good and effectual for any purpose
whatever, unless the person making the same be, at the time of executing or
acknowledging it as hereafter directed, of sound and disposing mind, and capable
of executing a valid deed or contract.  No will, testament or codicil, shall be
good and effectual to pass any interest or estate in any land, tenement, or incorporeal
hereditament, unless the person making the same, if a male, be of the
full age of twenty-one years, and if a female, of the full age of eighteen years.

    5.  No will, testament or codicil, shall be good and effectual for any purpose
whatever, unless the person making the same, if a male, be of the full age of
eighteen years, and if a female, of the full age of sixteen years.