Joseph Story

“ The second instruction may be disposed of in a few words. It contains a proposition absolutely universal in its terms; that a grant of lands is an entirety, and that a grant void in part, is void for the whole. If this proposition were true, then a grant of ten thousand acres, which was void for any cause whatever as a conveyance of one acre, although it might be for want of title in the grantor, would be void for the remaining nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine acres. It is sufficient to say, that the instruction so generally framed, ought not to have been given. ”

“ Abram Jones, one of the subscribing witnesses, was long since dead; and it does not appear that Thomas Harwood, the other subscribing witness, was alive, or that the plaintiff had any means of identifying him or tracing out his residence. The original power did not exist, so that the plaintiff could not, by an inspection of his handwriting, ascertain who he was, or where he lived.
After the lapse of thirty years from the time of the execution of a deed, the witnesses are presumed to be dead ”

“ The plaintiff also gave in evidence a deed executed by Thomas Smyth, Jun., as attorney in fact of Basil Jones, dated on the 18th of November 1793, conveying, as such attorney, to William Patterson, the lessor of the plaintiff, certain tracts of land, and among others, the tract of seven thousand three hundred acres; which deed contained a recital that Basil Jones, by his certain writing or letter of attorney, dated the 6th of August 1793, did empower and authorise his said attorney in his, Basil Jones, name, to sell and dispose of the tracts mentioned in the deed ”

“ There are doubtless cases where grants and securities, made contrary to the prohibitions of a statute in part, are, upon the true construction of the intent of the statute, void in toto. But Lord Hobart informs us, that it is very different in cases standing merely upon the common law. ”