In re the Tutorship of Upton

This case presents but one point of law, which is: can an adopter appoint a testamentary tutor to the adopted minor, to the exclusion of the natural father ?

The facts are briefly as follows: By an Act of the Legislature, approved March 15th 1852, John Upton, and his wife, Mary Ballingat Upton, were authorized to adopt by public act, the minor, Ellen Wilson. John Upton died shortly after without having passed the act, and afterward his widow executed the act of adoption, and became the tutrix of Ellen by the consent of the father. Mary Ballingat and William M. Wilson, the father of the minor,…