Page 22 - BOOK OF B B AND FONS

The Blaker Society

A Purchase made pendente lite, and after full Notice of a Trust, set aside in
Equity.

THE Lands in Question were call’d the Manor of Raymonds, in the Parish of

Broadwater in Sussex, and the Case was thus.

The Plaintiff Margaret is Sole Daughter and Heir of Thomas Bland, who

was Son and Heir of George Bland deceased, who in June 1635, having
purchased the said Manor of Anne Page, took a Conveyance thereof in the
Names of Revell and Hart in Trust for the said George Bland and his Heirs.

Revell the surviving Trustee by the Appointment of the said George
7
Bland, convey’d the Premisses to John Whitlock and Elizabeth Cooper; this
8
was on the 23 June Anno 18. Car. I. and Whitlock dying, the said Elizabeth
married one Bayly, in whose House George Bland kept all his Writings; and in
the Year 1648, there he died; so that Bayly and his Wife Elizabeth possess'd
themselves of all his said Writings, and are both since Dead.
But the said Bayly in his Life-time, by Contrivance with one Surman and
Statham, about a Fortnight after the Death of the said George Bland, set up a
forged Will, pretended to be made by the said George, whereby he devised
some Part of his Estate to his Son Thomas, (the Father of the Plaintiff Margaret)
but the greatest Part to found and endow an Almshouse, with a Clause, that if his
Son Thomas Bland should not be contented therewith, but disturb his Executors,
then a Moiety of what he had devised to his said Son, should be for the Use of
the said pretended Almshouse; and by the said pretended Will the said Bayly
and Surman were made Executors, who possessed themselves of the Premisses,
but neglected the Charity; and thereupon Thomas Bland the Son, not
discovering that the Will was forged, sues the said Executors in Chancery, in
behalf of the Charity, and Bayly by his Answer disclaimed any Interest to his
own Use.
But Bayly afterwards finding the Deed by which Revell had convey’d the
Premisses to Whitlock and to Elizabeth Cooper, and Whitlock being dead as
aforesaid; and he having married the said Elizabetb, he waved his Title as
Executor by the said pretended Will, and set up a Title under that Deed for
himself, in Right of his Wife; and thereupon Surman the other Executor Anno
1650, exhibited a Bill against him in this Court; and a Trial was ordered at the
Bar of the Common Pleas upon this Issue, whether the Conveyance to Whitlock
and Elizabeth was in Trust for the said George Bland and his Heirs, or not; and
the Jury upon full Evidence gave a Verdict for the Trust, tho’ at a former Trial
there was a Verdict to the contrary; but it was against the Direction of the Judge,

7 This was decreed to be in Trust for Bland and his Heirs.
8 23 June 1642