Signature by mark

The force and effect to be given to instruments, which have for signatures only the ordinary marks of the parties to them, depend more upon rules of evidence, than the dicta of law, relating to the validity of contracts required to be made in writing. The genuineness of instruments under private signature, depends on proof; and, in all cases, when they are established by legal evidence, instruments signed by the ordinary mark of a person incapable of writing his name, ought to be held as written evidence.