454 FORNSHILL v. MURRAY.—1 BLAND.

administration had been granted as set forth. But they alleged,
that the intestate Henry left other next of kin beside those men-
tioned in the bill, and that Mary the mother of the plaintiff's, who
was a sister of the half-blood of the intestate Henry, had been
first lawfully married in Ireland about the year 1789, to John
Lewis, who was still alive and had always resided there; and that
she, alter having cohabited with him for some time as his wife,
left him about the year 1792 and came to Maryland, where she
continually resided until her death, leaving her lawful husband
John Lewis then and still living. Whereupon the defendants
averred, that the alleged subsequent marriages of Mary with
Davidson and with Fulton were utterly void; and that the plain-
tiff's, Ann, Sarah, Andrew and William, were illegitimate; and, as
such, absolutely incompetent legally to demand any thing as the
next of kin of Henry Somervell.

A commission was issued to Ireland, and the depositions of
several witnesses were taken and returned; from which it appeared,
by the testimony of two witnesses who were present at the mar-
riage ceremony, that Mary, the sister of the intestate Henry, had
been married to John Lewis, who was then living; and that they
had afterwards cohabited, as husband and wife, for about two
years; when she left him, and, as they had alwajs understood,
went from Ireland to America. The testimony of these two wit-
nesses was corroborated by that of others, who declared, that they
knew the intestate Henry's sister Mary and John Lewis to have
lived together sometime, as husband and wife; and that they were so
* reputed to be in the neighborhood in which they lived;
481 and that Mary left her husband John Lewis and migrated
to America about the 3 ear 1792, where, as they had heard, she had
continually resided until her death; and that John Lewis does
now, and always has resided in Ireland. In addition to which the
deposition of an attorney was taken, who testified, that such a
marriage, as that described by the other witnesses, was valid
according to the law of Ireland; and, that he had known such
marriages to be held valid in the Courts of justice there.

BLAND, C., 12th July, 1828.—This case standing ready for hear-
ing, and having been submitted without argument, the proceedings
were read and considered.

Marriage has been considered among all nations as the most im-
portant contract into which individuals can enter, as the parent
not the child of civil society. Dalrymple v. Dalrymple, 2 Hag. Con.
Rep. 54. It would seem, that in the dark ages a notion prevailed
of the mysterious nature of the contract of marriage, in which its
spiritual nature almost entirely obliterated its civil character; by
which notion, some were carried so far as to say, that a marriage
of an insane person could not be invalidated on that account. In