ested therein: Provided, however, that if any person interested shall, within three years after the probate of any such will, testament or codicil, in the county court as aforesaid, appear, and by his or her bill in chancery, contest the validity of the same, an issue at law shall be made up, whether the writing produced be the will of the testator or testatrix or not; which shall be tried by a jury in the circuit court of the county wherein such will, testament or codicil shall have been proven and recorded as aforesaid, according to the practice in courts of chancery in similar cases; but if no such person shall appear within the time aforesaid, the probate as aforesaid shall be forever binding and conclusive on all the parties concerned, saving to infants, femes covert, persons absent from the state, or non compos mentis, the like period after the removal of their respective disabilities. And in all such trials by jury, as aforesaid, the certificate of the oath of the witnesses at the time of the first probate, shall be admitted as evidence, and to have such weight as the jury shall think it may deserve. [R. S. 1845, p. 537, § 6.

8. DEVISE, ETC., TO WITNESS VOID.] § 8. If any beneficial devise, legacy or interest shall be made or given, in any will, testament or codicil, to any person subscribing such will, testament or codicil, as a witness to the execution thereof, such devise, legacy or interest shall, as to such subscribing witness, and all persons claiming under him, be null and void, unless such will, testament or codicil be otherwise duly attested by a sufficient number of witnesses exclusive of such person, according to this act; and he or she shall be compellable to appear and give testimony on the residue of such will, testament or codicil, in like manner as if no such devise or bequest had been made. But if such witness would have been entitled to any share of the testator's estate, in case the will, testament or codicil was not established, then so much of such share shall be saved to such witness as shall not exceed the value of the said devise or bequest made to him or her as aforesaid. [R. S. 1845, p 539, § 11.

9. WILLS PROVEN WITHOUT THE STATE, EFFECT OF.] § 9. All wills, testaments and codicils, or authenticated copies thereof, proven according to the laws of any of the United States, or the territories thereof, or of any country out of the limits of the United States, and touching or concerning estates within this state, accompanied with a certificate of the proper officer or officers that said will, testament, codicil or copy thereof was duly executed and proved, agreeably to the laws and usages of that state or country in which the same was executed, shall be recorded as aforesaid, and shall be good and available in law, in like manner as wills made and executed in this state. [R. S. 1845, p. 538, § 8.

10. FOREIGN WILLS ADMITTED TO PROBATE.] § 10. All wills, testaments and codicils, which heretofore have been, or shall hereafter be made, executed and published out of this state, may be admitted to probate in any county in this state in which the testator may have been seized of lands, or other real estate, at the time of his death, in the same manner, and upon like proof as if the same had been made, executed and published in this state, whether such will, testament or codicil, has first been probated in the state, territory or country in which it was made and declared or not. And all original wills, or copies thereof, duly certified according to law, or exemplifications from the records in pursuance of the law of congress in relation to records in foreign states, may be recorded as aforesaid, and shall be good and available in law, the same as wills proved in such county court. [L. 1855, p. 44, § 1.

11. PLACE OF PROBATE.] § 11. If any testator or testatrix shall have a mansion house or known place of residence, his or her will shall be proved in the court of the county wherein such mansion house or place of residence shall be. If he or she has no place of residence, and lands be devised in his or her will, it shall be proved in the court of the county wherein the lands lie, or in one of them, where there shall be land in several different counties; and if he or she have no such known place of residence, and there be no lands devised in such will, the same may be proved either in the county where the testator or testatrix shall have died, or that wherein his or her estate, or the greater part thereof, shall lie. [R. S. 1845, p. 540, § 17.

12. CUSTODIAN OF WILL TO DELIVER-PENALTY.] § 12. Any person or persons who may have in his or her possession any last will or testament of another, for safe keeping or otherwise, shall, immediately upon the death of the testator or testatrix, deliver up said will to the county court of the proper county; and upon a failure or refusal so to do, the county court may issue attachment, and compel the production of the same; and the person or persons thus withholding any such will, testament or codicil, as aforesaid, shall forfeit and pay $20 per month, from the time the same shall be thus wrongfully withheld, to be recovered by action of debt for the use of the estate, by any person who will sue for the same, in any court having jurisdiction thereof; and if any person to whom a will, testament or codicil hath been or shall be delivered by the party making it, for safe custody as aforesaid, shall alter or destroy the same without the direction of the said party, or shall willfully secrete it for the space of six months after the death of the testator or testatrix shall be known to him or her, the person so offending shall, on conviction thereof, be sentenced to such punishment as is or shall be inflicted by law, in cases of larceny. [R. S. 1845, p. 540, § 18.

13. EVIDENCE IN CASE OF APPEAL.] § 13. When the probate of any will and testament shall have been refused by any county court, and an appeal shall have been taken from the order or decision of such court refusing to admit such will to probate, into the circuit court of the proper county, as provided by law, it shall be lawful for the party seeking probate of such will, to support the same, on hearing in such circuit court, by any evidence competent to establish a will in chancery; and in case probate of such will shall be allowed on such appeal, it shall be ad mitted to probate, liable, however, to be subsequently contested, as provided in the case of wills admitted to probate in the first instance. [L. 1845, p. 596, § 1. 14. APPEALS-TRIAL DE NOVO.] 14. Appeals may be taken from the order of the county court, allowing or disallowing any will to probate, to the circuit court of the same county, by any person interested in such will, in the same time and manner as appeals may be taken from justices of the peace, except that the appeal bond and security may be approved by the clerk of the county court; and the trials of such appeals shall be de novo. [R. S. 1845, p. 564, § 138.

15. NUNCUPATIVE WILL.] § 15. A nuncupative will shall be good and available in law for the conveyance of personal property thereby bequeathed, if committed to writing within twenty days after the making thereof, and proven before the county court by two or more credible, disinterested witnesses, who were present at the speaking and publishing thereof, who shall declare, on oath or affirmation, that they were present and heard the testator pronounce the said words, and that they believed him to be of sound mind and memory; and that he or she did at the same time, desire the persons present, or some of them, to bear witness that such was his or her will, or words to that effect; and that such will was made in the time of the last sickness of the testator or testatrix; and it being also proven by two disinterested witnesses, other than those herein before mentioned, that the said will was committed to writing within ten days after the death of the testator or testatrix; and no proof of fraud, compulsion or other improper conduct be exhibited, which, in the opinion of said court, shall be sufficient to invalidate or destroy the same; and all such wills, when proven and authenticated as aforesaid, shall be recorded in like manner as other wills are directed to be recorded by this act: Provided, that no letters testamentary shall be granted on such will, until the expiration of sixty days after the death of the testator or testatrix. [R. S. 1845, p. 538, § 9.

16. CITATION AND NOTICE TO HEIRS, ETC.] § 16. In all cases where a nuncupative will shall be proved and recorded as aforesaid, the court shall issue a citation to the heirs and legal representatives of the testator or testatrix, if they reside in the county, if not, then said court shall cause an advertisement to be inserted in some one of the newspapers printed in this state, notifying the said heirs and legal representatives of the testator or testatrix, at what time and place letters testamentary will be granted upon such will, requiring them and each of them to appear and show cause, if any they have, why letters testamentary should

not be granted; and if no sufficient cause be shown, letters shall be granted thereon, as in other cases. [R. S. 1845, p. 539, § 10.

17. MANNER OF REVOKING WILL.] § 17. No will, testament or codicil shall be revoked, otherwise than by burning, canceling, tearing or obliterating the same, by the testator himself, or in his presence, by his direction and consent, or by some other will, testament or codicil in writing, declaring the same, signed by the testator or testatrix, in the presence of two or more witnesses, and by them attested in his or her presence; and no words spoken shall revoke or annul any will, testment or codicil in writing, executed as aforesaid, in due form of law. [R. S. 1845, p. 539, § 15.

18. WILLS TO REMAIN WITH CLERK-COPIES EVIDENCE.] § 18. All original wills, together with the probate thereof, shall remain in the office of the clerk of the county court of the proper county; and copies of the record of the same, and copies of the record of exemplifications of foreign wills recorded in said office, as in this act provided, duly certified under the hand of the clerk and the seal of said court, shall be evidence in any court of law or equity in this state. [R. S. 1845, p. 540, § 16.

19. DEBTOR AS EXECUTOR.] § 19. In no case hereafter, within this state, where any testator or testatrix shall, by his or her will, appoint his or her debtor to be his or her executor or executrix, shall such appointment operate as a release or extinguishment of any debt due from such executor or executrix, to such testator or testatrix, unless the testator or testatrix shall, in such will, expressly declare his intention to devise, bequeath or release such debt; nor even in that case, unless the estate of such testator or testatrix is sufficient to discharge the whole of his or her just debts, over and above the debt due from such executor or executrix. [R. S. 1845, p. 539, § 12.

20. CREDITOR AS WITNESS.] § 20. If any lands, tenements or hereditaments shall be charged with any debts, by any will, testament or codicil, and the creditor whose debt is so secured shall attest the execution of the same, such creditor shall, notwithstanding, be admitted as a witness to the execution thereof. [R. S. 1845, p. 545, § 43.

[§ 21, repeal, omitted; see "Statutes," ch. 131, § 5.]

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

STATE OF ILLINOIS.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Office of Secretary of State.

I. GEO. H. HARLOW, Secretary of State, of the State of Illinois, pursuant to law, do hereby certify that the foregoing Chapters, from one to one hundred and forty-eight, inclusive, were compiled and edited by HON. H. B. HURD, Acting Commissioner of Revision, and published under his supervision, in accordance with an act of the TwentyEighth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, entitled "An act to provide for the publication of the Revised Statutes of the State," approved March 30, 1874. I further certify that all of the laws contained in said Chapters have been compared with the enrolled laws now on file in the office of Secretary of State, and are true and correct copies of said enrolled laws, (with the exception of the words and figures inclosed in brackets, or separated from the text by a bracket,) and are entitled to be received as evidence in all courts and places.

GEO. H. HARLOW,
Secretary of State.

INDEX.