Purser v. Short

Defendant in error filed a bill in the court below, to compel partition of lands, and obtained a decree..

The patentee of the land in controversy, was Joseph Patterson. He conveyed to Isaac H. Alexander and Hezekiah Cunningham. Alexander died testate in 1837, leaving surviving him a wife and two children; the children were minors, and died during the same year.

The will of Alexander was duly proved, and it empowered the executors to sell and convey, either at public or private sale, his real estate. The will devised to the widow, during her natural life, the interest of the testator in the land…