original plaintiffs, or the survivor of them, or the executors or administrators of the survivor; and the money recovered therein shall be deposited in the town treasury, to be applied and disposed of as provided in the twelfth section. Ib. § 16. 15. If judgment in such action, by whomsoever brought, shall be rendered for the plaintiff, in the court of common pleas, or the supreme judicial court, the court may also, upon the motion of the plaintiff, discharge the minor from his apprenticeship or service, if it shall not have been already done in the manner before provided, and the minor may be thereupon bound anew. Ib. § 18. 16. If any such apprentice or servant shall be guilty of any gross behavior, or refusal to do his duty, or wilful neglect thereof, his master may file his complaint in the court of common pleas, for the county in which he resides, setting forth the facts and circumstances of the case, and the court, after having duly notified the apprentice or servant, and all persons who have covenanted on his behalf, and after a full hearing of the parties, or of the complainant alone if the adverse parties shall neglect to appear, may render a judgment or decree, that the master be discharged from the contract of apprenticeship or service. And any minor so discharged may be bound out anew. 22 & 23. Ib. § 17. No indenture of apprenticeship or service, made in pursuance of this chapter, shall bind the minor after the death of his master, but the apprenticeship or service shall be thenceforth discharged, and the minor may be bound Ib. § 24. out anew. 18. Any indenture of apprenticeship or service, made in pursuance of this chapter, by or in behalf of a minor, may be made either with a woman or a man, and all the foregoing provisions shall apply as well to mistresses as to masters. Ib. § 25. 19. The overseers of the poor of any town, and the mayor and aldermen of any city, in this Commonwealth, shall, upon request, give permission to any regular physician, duly qualified according to law, to take the dead bodies of such persons as are required to be buried at the public expense, within their respective towns or cities, to be by him used within this Commonwealth for the advancement of anatomical science, preference being always given to medical schools by law established in this State, for their use in the instruction of students; and it shall be the duty of all persons having charge of any poor-house, work-house, or house of industry, in which any person required to be buried at the public expense shall die, immediately to give notice thereof to the overseers of the poor of the town, or the mayor and aldermen of the city, in which such death shall occur, and the dead body of such person shall not except in case of necessity, be buried, nor shall the same be dissected or mutilated, until such notice shall have been given, and permission therefor granted by said overseers, or mayor and aldermen. St. of 1845, c. 242, § 1. 20. No such body shall in any case be surrendered, if the deceased person, during his last sickness, of his own accord, requested to be buried, or if, within twenty-four hours after his death, any person claiming to be of kindred or a friend to the deceased, and satisfying the proper authority thereof, shall require to have the body buried; or if such deceased person was a stranger, or traveller who suddenly died; but the dead body shall, in all such cases, be buried; and no body shall be surrendered until the physician requesting the same, shall give to the board, by whose order the same is to be surrendered, the bond required by the following section. Ib. § 2. 21. Every physician shall, before receiving such dead body, give to the board of officers, surrendering the same to him, a sufficient bond, that each body, so by him received, shall be used only for the promotion of anatomical science, and that it shall be used for such purpose within this state only, and so as in no event to outrage the public feeling; and that, after having been so used, the remains thereof shall be decently buried. R. S. c. 22, § 12. 22. No licenses for the sale of the real estate of any idiot or insane person under guardianship, or if any person under guardianship on account of excessive drinking, gaming, idleness, or debauchery, shall be granted unless the overseers of the poor of the town or place, of which the ward is an inhabitant, or in which he resides, shall certify in writing their approbation of such proposed sale. R. S. c. 71, § 28. 23. The treasurer of any savings bank, or of any institution for savings, shall upon the written request of any overseer of the poor of any city or town of the Commonwealth signed by him, inform such overseer of the amount if any, which may be deposited in the savings bank or institution for saving of which he is the treasurer, to the credit of any person named in the request who may be at the time a charge upon the Commonwealth, or upon any city or town as a pauper. 16. Fourth rule. Living three years successively on freehold estate. 17. Estate sufficient though under mortgage the whole time for its value. 18. Or if held under title apparently good, &c. 19. Living on an estate in remainder, with a preceding freehold in another, not sufficient. 20. If a person receives aid as a pauper, settlement is not gained. 21. Settlement may be gained, though the person is under guardianship as a spendthrift, 22. Mortgagor occupying by leave of lessee for years of mortgagee &c. does not acquire a settlement. 23. Husband occupying for three years, successively land assigned to his wife as dower, obtains a settlement. 24. Occupation of a freehold estate, by grantor after a fraudulent conveyance, is not sufficient to gain a settlement. 25. Occupation by grantee, for three years gains a settlement though grantor had not title. 26. Possession and occupancy of an estate of freehold for three years successively does not gain a settlement if occupant has received support as a pauper from the town. 27. Support granted to a person as pauper by the town where he has a settlement prevents his acquiring a settlement in another town. 28. Fifth rule. Being assessed five successive years for an estate of $200, &c. 29. Taxes need not be paid. 30. Provision applies to personal as well as real estate. 31. Party must reside in town the whole five years. Serving one year 32. Sixth rule. in certain town offices. 33. Seventh rule. Settled and ordained ministers. 34. A minister who has been once regularly ordained in one town, and afterwards settled in another for a limited period acquires a settlement in the latter town. 35. Eighth rule. Persons admitted inhabitants by a vote of the town. 36. Ninth rule. Settlement by an incorporation of an unincorporated place. 39. Twelfth rule. Residence of ten years and paying taxes five years. 40. Residence must be uninterrupted. 41. If pauper calls for aid, settlement will not be gained. 42. A parent does not gain a settlement in a town by residence ten years and paying taxes for five, if he is supplied by the town where he has his settlement, with money to support his children. 43. Assessment and payment of a tax under certain circumstances suffcient to gain a settlement. 44. The pauper need not have an estate in fee or freehold under this mode. 45. The taxes must be paid during five years. 46. Effect of omission to tax. 47. Having a family in another state will not prevent settlement. 48. Payment of highway tax. sufficient. 49. Settlement lost if party is committed to jail during the ten years and receives relief as a pauper from the jailor. 50. Otherwise if his wife receives assistance in another town without his knowledge. 51. Settlements under the repealed clause of statute 1793, c. 34. 52. Settlement was gained under this mode though the title of the estate was defeasible. 53. The income must be clear from all charges. 54. It must have been three pounds each and every year. 55. Owner must have had his home in the town the whole of the same three years. 56. An estate held in trust was sufficient. 57. 58. 1767. Also an estate leased. 59. Settlements from April 10th, 1767, to June 23d, 1789. 60. Modes of acquiring settlements, from June 23d, 1709, to February 11th, 1794. 61. Provision for persons who had began to acquire settlement, when the revised statutes took effect. 62. A legal settlement continues till a new one is acquired in this state. 63. Acquisition of a settlement in another state, does not cause the loss of a settlement in this state. 64. Persons residing on lands of U. S. do not acquire settlements. 1. By the revised statutes, twelve modes are presented by which legal settlements may be acquired, in any town, so as to oblige such town to relieve and support the persons acquiring the same, in case they are poor and stand in need of relief. R. S. c. 45, § 1. 2. The provisions of the revised statutes took effect on the first day of May, eighteen hundred and thirty-six. The rules with the exception of the fourth are the same as those of the statutes of 1793, c. 34. The fourth rule is taken from the statutes of 1821, c. 94. 3. All settlements since the first day of May, 1836, and all future settlements are to be determined by the rules as they now stand. So are all settlements with the exception of those arising under the fourth mode, which have been acquired since the eleventh day of February, 1794. The fourth rule applies only to settlements acquired since the twenty-first day of February, 1822. 4. We give the rules with some of the most important of the decisions of the Supreme Court upon them. First, A married woman shall always follow and have the settlement of her husband if he have any within the state; otherwise, her own at the time of marriage, if she then had any, shall not be lost or suspended by the marriage; and in case the wife shall be removed to the place of her settlement, and the husband shall want relief, he shall receive it from the state, in the town where his wife shall have her settlement. R. S. c. 45, § 1. 5. It can make no difference where the marriage was solemnized, whether within or without the Commonwealth, provided it be such a marriage as our laws recognize, nor what was the age of the parties, provided they were competent to contract matrimony. 9 Mass. 201. 6. A wife does not lose her settlement derived from her husband by means of divorce, for the cause of adultery. Ib. 7. But a void marriage does not confer a settlement. |