Inhabitants of Monson v. Inhabitants of Chester
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Assumpsit for expenses incurred in the support of Phebe Saunders, a pauper, whose settlement was alleged by the plaintiffs to be in Chester.
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Assumpsit for expenses incurred in the support of Phebe Saunders, a pauper, whose settlement was alleged by the plaintiffs to be in Chester. On a case stated it appeared, that in order to prove that Henry Leonard, the husband of the pauper, and from whom her settlement was derived, had acquired a settlement in Chester, the plaintiffs offered in evidence an instrument in writing, dated the 14th of February, 1797, whereby the selectmen of Chester, in conformity with a vote of the inhabitants of that town, leased to Jeremiah Curtis, his heirs and assigns, one hundred and twenty acres, by…
1Opinion of the Court
Morton J.
delivered the opinion of the Court. The settlement of Henry Leonard, whose wife the pauper was, and whose settlement she has, depends upon the construction of St. 1793, c. 34, § 2.
He could gain no settlement under that statute, except by the fifth mode prescribed. His lease, for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, was merely a chattel interest, and does not bring him within the fourth mode as it stood in the original statute, or as it was revised in St. 1821, c. 94, § 2, and now stands in Revised Stat. c. 45, § 1. In all the versions, an estate of inheritance or freehold is required.
B…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Hayden v. Middlesex Turnpike Corp.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1813
- Inhabitants of Wrentham v. Inhabitants of AttleboroughMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1809
- Inhabitants of Billerica v. Inhabitants of ChelmsfordMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1813