JAMES THOMAS, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR.

1834.

CHAPTER 291.

CHAP. 291.

A supplement to an act, entitled, an act for amending and re-
ducing into system, the laws and regulations concerning
Last Wills and Testaments the duties of Executors, Ad-
ministrators and Guardians and the rights of Orphans and
other representatives of deceased persons.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Ma-
ryland, That whenever land shall descend, or be devised to
a male under the age of twenty-one years, or to a female
under the age of eighteen years, or any such male or female

Where land de-
scends &c to

minors

shall be entitled to a distributive share of the personal
estate of an intestate, or to a legacy or bequest under a last
will or codicil, or who may acquire any real or personal
jproperty or estate, by gift or by purchase, and the said

Or property vests

male or female shall not have a guaidian appointed by last,
will and testament, agreeably to law, the Orphans' Court of

And no guard an

the county where the land lies, or in which administration of
the personal estate is granted, shall have power to appoint a
guardian to such infant, until the age of twenty one years, (if
a male,) and until the age of eighteen years, (if a female,) or

Orphans Court
shall appoint
guardian

marriage, and such appointment may be made at an} time .
after the probat of the will, or administration granted on the
estate of the deceased, under whom the infant appears to be
so entitled to land, and it may be made, rf the court shall
think proper, in the case of personal estate, either before or
after the executor or administrator shall have parsed his
account

At any time *c.

Sec 2 And be it enacted, That the Orphans' Court of the
several counties in this State, shall have the right and pow-
er to appornt a guardian to any such infant as aforesaid,
although such infant may have a father or mother living at
the time of such appointment , Provided, notice by the
Court be given, by publication or otherwise, to such lather,
or mother, if there be no father living, to show cause why
such appointment should not be made, and such appoint-
ment shall be as valid in every respect, and to all intents

And other trans-

parents the [ ]

and purposes, as if the father and mo her of such infant were
both dead at such time, any law to the contrary notwith-
standing, Provided, that nothing herein contained, shall pre-
vent the said courts from appointing the father or mother of
such infant, its guardian, if the Court to whom the appoint-
ment properly belongs, shall, in rts discretion, deem such
father or mother a fit and proper person to be so appointed.

Or parents