WALSH v. SMYTH—3 BLAND.

The prayer of the petition for a rehearing can be no farther regarded than as
it may injuriously affect the interests of the petitioner.

THIS bill was filed by Robert Walsh and Stephen Casenave
against Thomas Smyth, Jr., John Blanton, John F. Gardner, Free-
man Lewis, Thomas Gilbert, Benjamin Chew, John Heathcote,
James Dall, Isaac Wikoff, James Clayland, William Cox, Joseph
Anthony and Son, and the heirs of John Lynch.

The bill states, that Smyth and Lynch, pretending to be entitled
to a large quantity of land in the State of Georgia, their title to
which, they represented to be wholly unencumbered, and also
10 * represented it to possess great advantages of water and
navigation, and to be situated in an increasing, populous
and wealthy country; and as evidences of the truth of those repre-
sentations as to title, quality and situation, they exhibited to these
plaintiffs a plot of a tract said to contain seventy-two thousand,
seven hundred and fifteen acres of land, on Tooglo River, pur-
porting to have been surveyed for Thomas Gilbert; one other
plot of two adjoining tracts of land, the one said to contain
sixty thousand acres, granted to John Blanton, on the 24th day of
March, 1794, and the other said to contain sixty thousand acres,
granted to Freeman Lewis, on the same day; and a third plot repre
seating a tract of land surveyed for John F. Gardner, and granted
on the 21st of March, 1794, twenty-one thousand acres of which
in his name, and the remaining part in the name of Thomas Gil
bert, granted —— day of——, 1795. A paper purporting to be an
affidavit made before a justice of the peace in Georgia, on the 18th
of April, 1794, by a person named Samuel Hollingsworth, stating
that he was a chain-carrier on a survey of lands laid out for Blan-
ton and Lewis, which he believed were vacant at that time. A
paper purporting to be a certificate given by Thomas Gilbert, on
the 22nd of August, 1794, stating, that he had surveyed twenty
one thousand acres for John F. Gardner, on the 1st of August,
1793, in Franklin County, and that he believed the whole to be
clear of elder surveys, and the greater part to be of excellent
quality; and another paper purporting to be a certificate bearing
date on the 26th of April, 1794, from Peter Crawford, clerk of
Columbia County, Georgia, stating, that John Blanton had resided
several years in that county, and that there never had been any
judgment entered up, execution issued, or mortgage recorded in
that county, against him or Freeman Lewis.

The bill further states, that to obviate all difficulty, Smyth and
Lynch offered to guarantee the title of the lands and to deliver
possession to the plaintiffs. Whereupon, the plaintiffs, on the 10th
of July, 1794, contracted with Smyth and Lynch, for the purchase
of all the lands mentioned in the said three plots, containing, in
the whole, two hundred and seventeen thousand, one hundred and