[180]
directed to observe the same rules relative thereto as they are ordered to do in managing the estates of other absentees.
October, 1778: The General Court order agents of estates of absentees to lay before them an account of all the property of such persons; and, furthermore, resolve that none of the
real estate shall be sold to pay their debts.
Feb. 1, 1779: The General Court resolved that all moneys received from rent or sale of the land of absentees be put into the treasury of the
State.
May 1, 1779: The
Court resolved to direct all agents to warn out the present possessors, and give possession to the new lessees of the
State.
May, 1779: The General Court appointed a Committee to sell at auction the confiscated estates of certain absentees.
Sir William Pepperell, the son-in-law of
Colonel Royal, is named in the list; but
Colonel Royal is not.
October, 1782: The General Court resolved that the estates of absentees ought to be held to pay the just debts of said persons; and therefore they order that the moneys received from the sale of such estates shall go to pay the creditors, deducting three per cent to the
State for expenses.
The mode of restoring the estate of
Colonel Royal to his heirs, and their disposition of it, may be learned from the following documents.
Extract from the deed given by
Henry Hutton and Elizabeth Royal
Hutton, of
England, to
Mr. Robert Fletcher, of
London, dated
London, Feb. 25, 1806.
It refers to the powers granted by the Legislature:--
And whereas, by an act of the Legislature of Massachusetts, passed on or about the 31st January, 1805, it was enacted or resolved that the Hon. James Sullivan, Attorney-General of said Commonwealth, and the Hon. Christopher Gore, or the survivors of them, should be, and they were, thereby authorized to make and execute a deed of conveyance of the said lands, messuages, and tenements, formerly belonging to the said Isaac Royal, to the said Robert Fletcher, his heirs and assigns, in fee simple, in manner and form, as was provided by the act passed on the 8th of March, 1792, entitled “An act for providing a more easy and simple method than was then in use for barring estates in tail in lands, and for making the same liable for the payment of the debts of tenants in tail;” and that such deed, executed and acknowledged by the said James Sullivan and Christopher Gore, Esqrs., or the survivors of them, and recorded in the Registry of Deeds, in the Counties of Middlesex and Norfolk respectively, should be as good and sufficient in law,