for the heir or next of kin: and therefore the bill is dismissed. Held also, that this will doth not create a perpetuity: for the trustees have the power of alienation-and though notice to the purchaser might effect him in Equity, yet that, being a circumstance collateral to the power of selling, will not affect the question of perpetuity: and the clauses in the bill of rights and constitution, were designed only to prevent dangerous accumulations of individual wealth, and referred to estates-tail alone: the establishment of a permanent fund for charitable uses does not come within the mischief, and is not prohibited by either of these clauses, nor by the common law. -North Carolina Reports, Hawks' Law and Equity, June Term 1820, Vol. XIII, pp. 96-97. CHAPTER LV. AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE TRUSTEES OF GRIFFIN'S FREE SCHOOL. Whereas Moses Griffin, late of the town of Newbern, by his will devised all the residue of his estate to Edward Graham, William Gaston, John Devereux, Francis Hawks, and John Oliver upon trust, that they should, out of the rents and profits of his estate, both real and personal, purchase two acres of land in some convenient and healthy place near the town of Newbern; and as soon as the funds arising from the issues and profits of his said estate should be deemed by the said trustees sufficient, that they should erect a brick house one and a half story high upon the said two acres of land, which said house the said testator directed to be thirty feet long and twenty feet wide, and to have a large room suitably furnished for a school room laid off on the first floor, the remainder of said house to be furnished in a plain manner fit for the accommodation of indigent scholars; which house should be called Grif directed further that as soon after the erection of the said house, as the funds arising from the issues and profits of his estate, both real and personal should admit of, a schoolmaster should be employed for the purpose of teaching and educating therein as many orphan children or the children of such poor and indigent persons as were unable to accomplish it by their own means, and who in the judgment of the said trustees were best entitled to the benefit of said donation, as the funds might be found equal to; with a further direction to the said trustees that the said poor and indigent children should be boarded, clothed and apprenticed from the rents and profits of his estate, whenever the funds arising therefrom should be sufficient; with a permission by the said testator that the schoolmaster who might be employed by his said trustees should receive from the parents and guardians of twenty-five scholars other than indigent ones, such tuition as he might make terms for. And whereas the said Edward Graham and Francis Hawks have died since their said testator, and it is desirable that the said trustees should have a perpetual succession: Therefore, Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That William Gaston, John Devereux, John Oliver, George S. Attmore, George Wilson, James C. Cole, John N. Roberts, John T. Lance and John M. Bryan, be, and they are hereby constituted a body corporate and politic, by the name of the Trustees of Griffin's Free School; and shall have a perpetual succession and a coinmon seal; and be in law capable of suing and being sued, impleading or being impleaded, in all courts either of law or equity; and may take and receive from the said surviving trustees, or the personal representatives of those who are dead, conveyances and assignments for all the lands, funds, stocks or choses in action which they hold from the said testator; and further may take and receive, either by gift or wil, any personal estate, funds or choses in action which may be given to them for the use of the said school. 11. And be it further enacted, That upon the death or removal of any of the said trustees, or upon any of them refusing to act in the said trust, the vacancy thus created shall be filled by the remaining trustecs. III. And be it further enacted, That five of the said trustees shall be a quorum, for the transaction of all busi ness. IV. And be it further enacted, That the said trustees may elect a secretary and treasurer, who shall give bond, satisfactory to the trustees, for the faithful discharge of his duties as secretary and treasurer, and who shall receive such compensation as may be settled by the said trustees. And whereas it is represented that a suit in equity is now pending for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of the assets of the said Moses Griffin, which may be in the hands of John Devereux or John Oliver, survivors of his executors who proved the said will, or which may have come to the hands of Edward Graham or Francis Hawks: V. Be it further enacted, That when the accounts in the said suit have been taken and a final decree passed therein, it shall and may be lawful for the said surviving trustees, or the executors or administrators of those who are dead, to pay any balance in their hands to the secretary and treasurer of the corporation hereby created; and the receipt of such secretary and treasurer shall be a final discharge to the said trustees or said executors or administrators for the amount thus paid: Provided always, and it is hereby declared, that the said will of the said Moses Griffin, as above recited shall be held and deemed to be the further, that this act shall not be in force unless the surviving executors and trustees of the said Moses Griffin shall, within twelve calendar months after the passage thereof, file in the office of the Secretary of the State their assent in writing to the same. -Laws of 1833-34, chapter LV, pp. 54-55. |