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484 RANDALL v. HODGES.
of kin. (q) When an executor or administrator presents himself
before the Orphans Court, for the purpose of voluntarily rendering
an account, it is only authorized to receive and pass the account
in a particular manner and upon vouchers of a specified description.
The inventory including all chattels real, personal property and
debts, due to the deceased, forms the aggregate of the debts or
charges; and the payment of debts and expenses as shewn by the
vouchers then produced form the sum total of the credits for which
he prays to be allowed. After the account is thus adjusted and
finished it is recorded. And when the whole estate cannot be
finally settled by one account, the executor or administrator is
allowed to pass a first, second, &c. accounts, until the whole is
closed, (r)
According to this course of proceeding in the settlement of the
accounts of an executor or administrator, which prevailed under
the Provincial government, and has been continued ever since,
when the specially described vouchers or documents, from which
the account was made, have been allowed by the court; it is said
to be proper to set a mark on them denoting the allowance and
entry, lest they should happen to be offered a second time, and the
estate be doubly charged, (s) Whence it clearly appears, that
although the account itself is recorded, yet that the vouchers, or
the proofs from which it has been framed are never impounded, as
in England; (t) or retained by the court for any purpose; nor are
they made a part of the record, or considered as of themselves,
like an original will, forming a portion of the records or proceed-
ings of the court; since, as it is said they are marked; because
being at once re-delivered to the executor or administrator they may
be offered a second time, (u)
These testimonials whereby an executor or administrator sustains
his account ought not, certainly, to be allowed a higher degree of
importance than similar documents brought before this court by
litigating parties. When books and papers are brought into this
court, as parts of the necessary evidence in a case, they are, during
the time of their being so detained, said to be impounded; and
therefore, while so retained here, they cannot be taken from the
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(f) 8 Blac. Com. 98; 1798, ch. 101, sub ch. 15, s. 12. —(r) 1798, ch. 101, jib ch.
10 Dep. Com. Guide, 48; 1831, ch. 816, s. 4. —(s) Dep. Com. Guide, 39—(t)
Nielson v. Cordell, 8 Ves. 146, —(u) Bowyer v. Green, 6 Exch. Rep. 87.
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