“ In the year 1787, John Paradise came with his wife to Virginia, and returned with her to England, in the year 1789, where he died, in 1796. After the death of her husband, Lucy Paradise treated the land in controversy as her own, exercising acts of ownership over it; and about the year 1805, returned to Virginia, where she died intestate, in possession of the land, in 1814, leaving no issue but her two grandsons, the children of the Countess Barziza, and the defendants Portia and Cornelia, her nieces, who would be her heirs-at-law, if no such issue were living. ”

“ Admitting that Lucy Paradise did so become an alien, it is material to inquire, what effect the treaty of peace of 1783 had upon her case; and upon the best consideration that we can give to it, we are of opinion that the sixth article of that treaty [1] completely protected her estate from forfeiture, by way of escheat for the defect of alienage. That defect was a disability solely occasioned by the war, and the separation of the colony from the mother country ”

“ Such a construction would give to this class of cases, privileges and immunities far beyond those of the natives of either country; and it would also materially interfere with the public policy common to both. We have, therefore, no hesitation to reject any interpretation which would give to persons, aliens to both governments, the privileges of both ”

“ That by marriage articles, made before the marriage of John Paradise and Lucy Ludwell, between the said John Paradise, of the first part, the said Peter Paradise, his father, of the second part, the said Lucy Ludwell of the third part, the said William Dampier, of the fourth part, and James Lee and Robert Carry, of the fifth part, reciting the said intended marriage, and that the said Peter Paradise had agreed to pay his son 4000l. ”