HOWARD'S CASE.

deducting therefrom the value of the improvements which have
been made upon said property during its possession by my said
children, or the possession of any other person under them; and
that upon such valuation, the whole shall be divided by the persons
to be named as aforesaid, into eight equal shares or parts, whereof
each of my children, viz. George, Benjamin C, William, James,
Sophia now Sophia Read, and Charles, is to have one part, to
them and their heirs for ever; and my grandchildren, John Eager
Howard, the son of my deceased son John, and James Howard
McHenry, the son of my daughter Juliana McHenry, now deceased,
one share each to them and their heirs for ever; subject, never-
theless, as to the two last mentioned devises, to the following
conditions, viz. that if either of my said grandchildren John Eager
Howard, or James Howard McHenry, should die before arriving at
the age of twenty-one years, then the share of such grandchild so
dying is to go and revert to such of my children and grandchildren
as may be alive at the death of such grandchild, in equal parts to
them and their heirs for ever."

" In cases where I may have given bonds of conveyance for
real property which I may have sold or contracted to sell, it is my
will and desire, that my executors should be, and they hereby are
fully authorized to execute all necessary deeds to complete said
contracts."

11th November, 1827.—BLAND, Chancellor.—It would seem,
that the devisees of the residuum of the testator's real estate take
in the manner and upon the terms specified, as tenants in common.
The direction, that the Chancellor shall appoint the persons to
make the division among them, amounts to no more than saying
what the law had already said, that a partition of the estate so
devised might be obtained by a bill in chancery. All concerned
must be brought before the court, or have an opportunity of being
heard; from which a majority of them would be precluded by the
ex parte procedure proposed by this petition.

It may be inferred from this petition, that the parties concerned
are anxious to have the estate of the deceased finally settled, and
divided in the manner he has directed by his will. If so, a bill
embracing the whole subject, and asking a partition, is the surest,
cheapest, and most expeditious mode of proceeding that can be
adopted. The defendants may answer at once, without waiting
to be summoned; an account may be taken if called for; and a
commission may issue, in the usual form, to divide the residue of