218 HANNAH K. CHASE'8 CASE.

The defence rests on the following grounds:—first, that the
plaintiff has heretofore sued for dower in this property, and by the
final termination of. those suits her claim, if she ever had any, has
been fully released or barred; secondly, that if she has not been
thus solemnly barred, yet she is not in law dowable of this pro-
perty, because her late husband never had a fee simple estate
therein, but held only a mere equitable interest, as a mortgagee to
secure the payment of money lent by him; thirdly, supposing
these objections removed, that still her claim can be carried no
further back than to the 26th of February, 1821, when the lease to
Bryden and her relinquishment of dower up to that period expired;
and lastly, supposing her claim to be valid, that yet the two-thirds
of this property, belonging to these defendants, can neither be sold
nor sequestered as a means of satisfying the amount of the rents
and profits, which may be decreed to her. These are the great
points of defence. The nature and validity of each of which must
now be carefully considered and determined.

With regard to the first point* The defendants Samuel, Matilda,
and Jinn claim this property, called the Fountain Inn, and allege,
that the plaintiff has released, or is barred of dower therein, by the
agreement, and the manner in which two suits, heretofore insti-
tuted in this court, to recover dower in the same property, have
, been finally adjusted and determined. If this allegation be well
founded, there is an end of the case; since it cannot be necessary
to inquire, whether the plaintiff had been previously thereto dowable
of this property;- and much less to determine the extent to which
she might have been entitled to recover.

This plaintiff, with John P. Paca, her trustee, filed a bill on the
17th of February, 1813, in this court, against the representatives
of the late Samuel Chase, to recover a certain amount of money
alleged to be due to her. After which she filed one bill on the 5th
of July, 1813, and another on the 14th of February, 1814, in
which she presented herself as the widow of the late Samuel
Chase, claiming dower in every parcel (the Fountain Inn, among
the rest) of the real estate of which her late husband had been
seized during their marriage, against his heirs, and all others,
whom she had found in possession of any part thereof. To these
suits the defendants appeared and answered; when the parties
came to an agreement, designated in this case as the exhibit S. M.f
by which the matters in dispute in all three of them were to be
adjusted or withdrawn. This written agreement is without date;