Williams, Thomas J. C. A history of Washington County Maryland

([Chambersburg, Pa.] :  J.M. Runk & L.R. Titsworth,  1906.)

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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
 

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thereafter, institute his suit in chancery against
the said Daniel Heister and Rosannah, his wife, or
her heirs or her or their assigns, and shall make
it appear to the chancellor, that he did not volun¬
tarily, freely and fairly make and execute the
said deed of conveyance, or that at the time of
making and executing thereof, he had not attained
the age of twenty-one years, that then this act shall
cease to have any operation or effect."

Of the fourteen hundred acres of his father's
estate that Hager conveyed to his brother-in-law
for his life with the fee in his sister, five hundred
acres lay betweeen Elizabethtown and Jeru¬
salem "adjoining the lands of Jacob Rohrer,
Michael Fackler, the town of Elizabeth to John
Stud's land, thence 'oy the same- and the land of
Jacob Funk, so as to include the plantation tlieu
in the tenure of Harmon Clopper." Upon this
tract Heister laid out the addition to Hagerstown
known as Ileisterboro. The other nine hundred'
acres were to be laid out by Joseph Sprigg, Samuel
Hughes, Daniel Hughes, Dr. Henry Schnebley,
George Shaver, Isaac Baker and George Swingle.
Five lots lying in Elizabethtown were also con¬
veyed in the deed. These lots were described as
being in the tenure of Thomas Simmes, the
Reverend Mr. A'oung and Dr. Noah Hart, one lot
on which Plarmon Clopper formerly built a small
log house and a lot opposite the Calvinist new
church.

I'his conveyance to Rosannah Heister occas¬
ioned protracted litigation, some history of which
is given in the following "'Orders of Publication"
taken from the proceeding's of the Court of Chan¬
cery:

In Chancery, Jan. 25, 1832.
Robert  Hicks   &  Magdeline  his   wife.   Christian
Hager and others,
vs.
Samuel Heister,  David  Beaver  &  Catherine his
wife, Ellen Davis, Abraham Landis & Rachel
his wife, Rebecca & Joseph Vanderslice, Mary
Leah,  John  &  Henry  Heister,  Jonathan  and
Elizabeth, William & Charles Heister & Freder¬
ick  Shultze,  John,  Mary  & William  Shultze,
Isaac, Catherine & William, Daniel J. & John
P. Heister, Edward Climer & Maria his wife,
l^ebecca Echert, Juliana and Jonathan Miller
and James R. Riley, and others.

The object of the bill filed in this cause is to
obtain from the Defendants a conveyance of four¬
teen hundred acres of land, lying in and near
 

Hagerstown, in Washington County, in the State
of Maryland, and several town Lots, in Hagers¬
town, and a sale of part thereof and an account
of the rents and profits of the whole. The Bill
states, that a certain Jonathan Hager of Frederick,
now Washington County, died in the year 1775,
intestate, seized of five thousand acres of land in
said County, of which the said lots and fourteen
hundred acres above mentioned are part, leaving
two children, Rosannah & Jonathan Hager, to the
last of whom, ail the said land descended. That
the said Jonathan Hager, the younger, executed
and delivered to his said sister Rosannah, an agree¬
ment to convey the aforesaid lots and fourteen hun¬
dred acres to'^'hef in fee, and that Daniel Heister,
with whom she afterwards intermarried, represent¬
ing that he had obtained in 1777 from the said
Jonathan Hager the younger, then a prisoner in
Halifax, a deed of said property to himself in fee,
petitioned the Legislature of Mar3dand iiL 1781,
to pass an act vesting the said property in himself
and wife in fee, but finally agreed to accept an act
vesting the same in the said Rosannah in fee, and
reserving a life estate to him and from that time
until their respective deaths claimed and had the
actual seisin and possession thereof—^that the said
Jonathan Ilager the younger, returned to Mary¬
land, married and died leaving an only Child,
Eilizabeth, afterwards married to Upton Lawrence
—that the said Daniel Heister & wife also removed
to Maryland and died, the said Daniel in 1804,
and the said Rosannah in 1810, seized & possessed
of the said lands in fee, and that the said Eliz¬
abeth devised to David Hager one of the Com¬
plainants, one of the said Lots and all the residue
of her property comprising the said fourteen hun¬
dred acres, to be sold by her executors and the
proceeds after the payment of debts to be di"vided
among the Complainants, but that the whole of
said property has been intruded upon b3'" sundry
persons and possessed in violation of said trust.
That the said Daniel Heister in 1822, procured to
be recorded certain pretended deeds of said prop¬
erty for himself and the said Rosannah to Wm.
Heister in fee, and fox said Wm. Heister to him¬
self in fee, which if ever executed were without
consideration covenous and void, and that the said
Daniel, pretending to be seized in fee of said lands
by virtue of said deeds, died in 1804, without issue,
having made a will by which said property is at¬
tempted to be devised to his wife for life, remain¬
der in fee to his three brothers, .Tohn, Gabriel and
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