by John Marshall Harlan

“ But a sheriff's deed for land sold for taxes, regular on its face, and made to one who was under no obligation to pay the taxes, will, as between the grantee and the taxpayer, constitute, without proof of a judgment for the taxes, such color of title as will meet the requirements of the statute of limitations. ”

“ Lewis took only an estate for her natural life, and at her death, in default of heirs of her body, the heirs at law of the testator took the estate in fee. But, in view of the admitted facts, it was held that the defendants were protected by the statute of Illinois, prescribing the periods within which actions for the recovery of lands may be brought. ”

“ Lewis was not adverse to those, if any, in remainder, and excluding, therefore, the entire period during which she held the apparent legal title which that deed conveyed, there was yet more than seven years' actual possession by the defendants, accompanied by the payment of taxes under subsequent deeds, duly recorded, and purporting, in each instance, to convey the fee. ”

“ But it is equally clear that the copy of the testator's will filed and recorded in 1866, in the office of the recorder of Woodford county, was not authenticated or certified so as to entitle it to record under the above statutes in Illinois. It was not certified to have been executed and proven according to the laws and usages of the state of Ohio, where it was made. ”

“ But this fact would only have proved the ownership of the lands, at one time, by Romeo Lewis, not that he had made a will, which was recorded in Ohio, and which gave his wife only a life estate in his Illinois lands. Besides, in Betser v. Rankin, 77 Ill. 289, it was held that knowledge of the facts appearing in the book of land entries must be brought home to purchasers. 'They are facts,' the court said, 'which, in order to affect a purchaser, he must have actual notice of; there is no constructive notice of such facts. ”

“ After observing, in the words of the same author, that, upon a devise to a person and his issue or children, the construction varies according to the circumstances, and that, if the party have issue or children at the time when the devise is made, they will take estates for their lives, jointly with their parent, but if he had no issue at that time he takes an estate tail, the court said that under the above statute Mrs. ”

“ That the court regarded the state of the title, as shown by the public records, to be important in determining whether the rights of the remainder-man could be affected by the actual possession, during the life estate, of one claiming under a deed conveying the fee, is clear from its reference to the case of Safford v. ”

“ Stubbs et al. avail appellee. Neither Berkey or Reiner, his immediate grantor, had notice that the interest of Weiser in the premises was merely that of a life tenant, and the records did not show it.' So, in Rohn v. ”