Case ID: mass_24/html/0145-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Per Curiam.\n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The Inhabitants of Scituate versus The Inhabitants of Hanover.
    A legitimate child having a settlement by its father, cannot acquire the settlement of its mother.
    Assumpsit to recover expenses incurred in supporting Sarah S. Clapp, a pauper.
    The parties agreed that the pauper was the legitimate daughter of Michael Clapp ; that she never gained a settlement in her own right; that Michael gained a settlement in Hanover, which continued until his decease in 1803 ; that after his decease, his widow, the mother of the pauper, removed to Scituate and there gained a settlement in her own right during the minority of the pauper, who removed with her mother.
    
      Oct. 21st.
    
    
      Oct. 23d.
    If the pauper’s settlement was still in Hanover, the defendants were to be defaulted ; if otherwise, the plaintiffs were to be nonsuit.
    
      W. Baylies, for the plaintiffs,
    referred to St. 1793, c. 34 ; Plymouth v. Freetown, 1 Pick. 197.
    
      Beal, contra,
    
    cited Freetown v. Taunton, 16 Mass. R. 52, suggesting as a distinction, that in the present case the mother gained a settlement in her own right.
   Per Curiam.

It is clearly the intention of the statute of 1793, c. 34, [Revised Stat. c. 45, § 1,] that a legitimate child having a settlement by its father shall not acquire the settlement of its mother.

Defendants defaulted.