19 Vt. 392 | Vt. | 1847
The opinion of the court was delivered by
It is not necessary to state all the facts relating to the question of settlement The settlement was indisputably in Hartland, unless William Patch, the late husband of the said Sophronia, and the father of her children, acquired a settlement in Hartford, under the eighth clause of section one of the statute of November 26, 1817, (which is re-enacted, and forms the eighth clause of section one of chap. 15 of the Revised Statutes,) by a residence fhere, supporting himself and family for the term of seven years.
Objections are taken to the sufficiency of the evidence given to make out such a residence, whether it is calculated from November,
» There is no occasion to determine whether the absence at Whitehall was such as would legally interrupt or sever the period of residence in Hartford ; nor whether the facts disclosed in the case were sufficient to constitute a legal emancipation : — because infancy alone, during the first three years, was a bar to any accruing settlement by residence during that time. The- settlement by seven years’ residence is expressly confined to persons “ of full age and these words can only have reference to the age of legal majority.
If the period is calculated from his coming of full age, it is objected, that the continuity of his residence in Hartford was broken by his removal to New-Hampshire in 1834, and his residence there for three or four months. And as it appears that he removed with his family, and set up business there, leased a house, garden, &c., and, while there, withdrew all his property and effects from Hartford, though he may have contemplated a return to Hartford at some future, but uncertain time, there was a clear interruption of his residence in that town. The case is identical, in principle, with that of Royalton v. Bethel, 10 Vt. 22. It follows, that the paupers had their legal settlement in Hartland, when the order of removal was made.
Whether this widow and her children were legally chargeable to Hartford must depend upon the degree of her destitution and poverty, when the proceedings were taken. It seems she was herself sickly and subject to fits, and that her children were of tender age. Little reliance for support could therefore be placed upon the personal efforts or labor of the family.
It is claimed, however, that she had property and means sufficient to have sustained herself and children, at least, for a time. She b.e-
The fact that these persons had been relieved, to the amount of some five dollars, at the expense of Hartford is entitled to some weight, as evidence that they were properly chargeable. No inducement appears, for affording that assistance collusively, or fraudulently. It might be otherwise, had the paupers been about to become settled in Hartford. But the only mode, in which this could happen, would be by a seven years’ residence of the widow, after she became such; and her residence in that character commenced in 1843.
On the whole, we do not think there was such evidence, that she
Judgment affirmed.