Inhabitants of Buckland v. Inhabitants of Charlemont
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
This was an action of assumpsit, brought originally before a justice of the peace, to recover expenses incurred in the support of Miriam Pierce, a pauper, whose settlement was alleged by the plaintiffs to be in Charlemont.
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This was an action of assumpsit, brought originally before a justice of the peace, to recover expenses incurred in the support of Miriam Pierce, a pauper, whose settlement was alleged by the plaintiffs to be in Charlemont. At the trial before the Court of Common Pleas, it was admitted, that Josiah Pierce, the pauper’s father, had his settlement in Charlemont on the 16th of May, 1813, at which time the pauper became twenty-one years of age ; that she had always resided with and constituted a part of her father’s family ; that the father removed to Bucldand more than six years ago, where he had…
1Opinion of the Court
Parker C. J.
delivered the opinion of the Court, to the following effect. The question is, whether the pauper, by virtue.of her father’s removal, gained a settlement in Buckland. This depends' upon the question, whether she was of sound mind when she became of age. If she was, her settlement did not follow that of her father.1
*176It was contended, that if the singularities of conduct in the pauper were incipient madness, they were complete madness, which incapacitated her from making a contract; and her case has been likened to the smallpox, where the subsequent breaking out proves the symptoms to…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Cutts v. HaskinsMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1813
- Watson v. Inhabitants of CambridgeMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1818