Pate v. Barrett

Judge Nicholas

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

James Mason of Virginia, by his will, made the following devise. ‘‘To my sister, Janet Crawford, I leave my mulatto girl Nelly, during her life, and at her death, to leave Nelly to afty of her-children' she may think proper, or free her by emancipation, as she pleaseth.”

Samuel Crawford, the husband of Janet, obtained Nelly from Mason’s executor, in Virginia, and brought her with him to Kentucky, in 1809 or 1810, and retained possession of her and her increase till his death, in 1821 ; when she, together with a child of hers called Hannah, Were…