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5 D.C. 669

Bell v. Greenfield

Decided March 15, 1840

The petitioners claimed their freedom under a paper purporting to be the last will and testament of Gabriel P. T. Greenfield, of Maryland. The will, upon caveat, had been admitted to probat, by the Orphans’ Court; but the sentence of that court had been reversed in the Court of Appeals.

Decided 1840-03-15

¶1The Court

(Thruston, J.,

¶2contra,) refused to permit the paper to be read in evidence to the jury as a will or testamentary paper.

¶3Mr. W. L. Brent, then offered to read the paper to the jury as an instrument of manumission, under the 29th section of the Maryland Act of 1796, c. 67, and contended that it is not necessary that the instrument of manumission should be signed or acknowledged by the party. That clause of the section which requires acknowledgment and recording applies only to manumissions intended to take effect in future; not to present manumissions.

¶4But the Court (Thruston, J., contrd,) refused this also.

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