Report of the Case between Aylett and Aylett, Determined by the High Court of Chancery, in Which the Decree Was Reversed by the Court of Appeals

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by George Wythe

Report of the Case between Aylett and Aylett
George Wythe bookplate.jpg
Title not held by The Wolf Law Library
at the College of William & Mary.
 
Author George Wythe
Editor
Translator
Published Richmond, VA: Printed and sold by T. Nicolson
Date 1796
Edition
Language
Volumes volume set
Pages 31
Desc. 20 cm. (8vo)

Report of the Case Between Aylett and Aylett[1] is a published opinion by George Wythe, for the case Aylett v. Aylett, Wythe 219 (1793), in Virginia's High Court of Chancery.[2] The report was published in pamphlet form in 1796, printed by Thomas Nicolson of Richmond, Virginia, who had published Wythe's Reports in 1795, and at least seven other supplements for Wythe, in 1796 and after.[3]

B.B. Minor, commenting in the second edition of Wythe's Reports in 1852, says:

Title page for Wythe's supplemental pamphlet, Report of the Case between Aylett and Aylett (Richmond, VA: Thomas Nicolson, 1796). Copy at the Virginia Historical Society.

W. A's will said: "I give to my son (the plaintiff) the plantation on which I at present live, and all my lands in King William, also my land in D. and in J. C., to him and his heirs;" and after other devisees of land, and declaring that his wife should hold and enjoy any part of the aforesaid lands, during widowhood, added, "all the residue of my estate, of what kind soever, I give and bequeath to my wife aforesaid, and my children, to be equally divided among them." At his death besides his fee simple lands in K. W., he was entitled to lands there demised for 999 years, and had brought suit to recover possession of a part thereof withheld : his executors obtained it. HELD, by the chancellor, that by the above devise said leasehold lands also passed to the plaintiff. He states that it does not appear that the testator knew that said lands were only leasehold : but the contrary is more probable, so that he must have intended to embrace them. But his decision was based chiefly upon a denial of the authority and reasoning of the case of Rose v. Bartlett, Cro. Car. 1, 292, which he here reviews. But the Court of Appeals reversed his decree. 1 Wash. 300.[4]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Although the location of a copy of this pamphlet which may have belonged to George Wythe has not been determined, he certainly would have owned copies of his own published reports, and a bound volume in the library of Thomas Jefferson contains other supplements which did belong to Wythe.[5]

See also

References

  1. George Wythe, Report of the Case between Aylett and Aylett, Determined by the High Court of Chancery, in Which the Decree Was Reversed by the Court of Appeals (Richmond, VA: Thomas Nicolson, 1796).
  2. George Wythe, Decisions of Cases in Virginia by the High Court of Chancery with Remarks upon Decrees by the Court of Appeals, Reversing Some of Those Decisions, 2nd ed., ed. B.B. Minor (Richmond: J.W. Randolph, 1852), 219.
  3. Charles Evans, in his American Bibliography, vol. 11 (1942).
  4. Wythe, Decisions (1852), 219. Minor more properly reports the case as Aylett v. Minnis, rather than using Wythe's title.
  5. "Six tracts originally bound together in calf for Jefferson by Milligan on June 30, 1807 (cost $1.00). Rebound in Buckram for the Library of Congress." E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 2:208 [no. 1759]. This volume, titled Wythe's Reports. Supplement. Virginia. 1796-99, contains pamphlets for: Case upon the Statute for Distribution (1796); Field v. Harrison (1794); Fowler v. Saunders and Goodall v. Bullock (1798, together in the same pamphlet); Wilkins v. Taylor (1799); Yates v. Salle (1792); and Love v. Donelson (1801).