The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1904-05-12

18th. / do hereby constitute an,
appoint my wife, Mary Jane Bald
: win, and my friend, John H. Cor
don, to be executors of this my las
: will and testament, and 1 do ex
pressly relieve them from giving Sc
curity for acting as executors.
I3th. In case of the death or non,
qualification of John H. Gordon a.
executor of this will. do hereby
nominate and appoint my friend
John A. Shreve, as executor, with
same duties and powers and condi.
tions conferred on said Gordon and
in that event / request him to qali-
| fly at once as executor in the Chan
Gerry Court.
Thus done and this page and the
three preceding pages written who'll
| ly by me and in my own handwrit-
ing this the 9Th day of July, A. D.
1890. L. N. BALDWIN.
Witnesses
JAMES w. PERSON,
CHARLES d. WHARTON,
THos. M. RIA.
Filed August 10Th, 1893.
A. K. JONES, Clerk.
Recorded in Will Book No. 3,
PIP. I42-I44.
Six annual accounts were filed,
the executors having, in the mean
while, taken charge of the dece-
dents property. cultivated the
farms, managed it all as directed in
the will, collected debts owing to
the estate, and having paid debts
due from he Festator, selling for
this purpose both real and personal
property, sometimes with, some
times without an order of the court.
They paid unprobated claims, a re-
port of which was made in all their
accounts. On March 18th, 1900,
Mrs. Mary ]. Baldwin having died
in the meanwhile, exceptions were
filed to these accounts, seeking to
charge the surviving executor, ].
H. Gordon, with the amounts
which he and the executrix, Mrs.
Baldwin, had paid out on unpro-
bated claims notice to creditors to
prove their claims within one year
having been duly made. The So
luton of the question here involved
depends upon whether the forego-
ing will created an express trust for
the payment of debts of the testat-
or Let us see what the environ
ment was let US put ourselves in
the place of Mr.. Baldwin at the
time he made his will, as an aid in
carrying out his intent with respect
to charging his estate with his
debts. For the only way fairly to
ascertain the true intent of testat-
or, is not to look to any single SEN
tence or special provision, but to
gather that intent from the whole
will so that the paramount purpose
dominating the instrument shall be
given effect. Says the Court in the
case of Watkins v. Snadon, 40
Am. St. Rep. 2o5 : 1.-The language
employed in a single sentence is not
to control, as against an evident
purpose shown by the whole instru-
ment. Effect is to be given TO the
general intent, and this we think is
shown throughout the whole will.
Again in the case of Murphy ".
carlin, IS Am. St. Rep. 7oI-7o7,
the Court says: "The true intent
and meaning of the testator can be
ascertained by the courts, and those
concerned in the execution of the
wills, by putting themselves, so far
as may, in the place of the testator
and reading all his directions there
in contained, in the light of his en-
vironment, at the time it was made.
When that intent and meaning can
be thus clearly ascertained, then,
all technical rules and adjudicated
cases in other jurisdictions, that
would stand in the way of its exc
cutions, must be disregarded. !" See
also Morse v. Hackensack Saving
Bank, II L. R. A. 81.
Mr.. Baldwin had been a member
of the Claiborne County bar for a
number of years, bat had retired
from the practice of law, and was
engaged in planting. His property
consisted mainly of FIVE places in
that county on the Bayou Pierre,
one in Holmes county on Honey
Island, and double marble front
building Ia the City of Chicago, en-
numbered for about Sal, 900. AT
the time OF his death, he owned
about $50, 1000. He seems to have
been a man who took a great pride
in paying his debts, and In keeping
his credit good at that time cotton
was at very low price and re-
fnained so during the years while