for ty or town taxes, duly assessed on his poll or estate, any five years within said time, shall thereby gain a settlement in such town. 1b.

32. The ten years residence must be uninterrupted; and any absence, however short, with the intention of permanently changing the place of abode, will prevent the gaining a settlement. 11 Mass. 394. 7 Pick. 42.

33. If, before the expiration of the ten years' residence the pauper calls for aid, which is furnished him, and the expenses thereof be reimbursed by the town where he is lawfully settled, this will be such an interruption of his residence as will prevent his gaining a settlement.

460. 12 Pick. 1.

13 Mass.

And this though he has no settlement within the Commonwealth. 3 Met. 428.

34. As the payment of taxes within the town seems to be the principal cause of the settlement, it is not material that the pauper should have had a fee or even a freehold in the estate for which he had paid taxes. Thus if a per

son be taxed for a piece of land which he occupies from year to year, or by sufferance, it will be considered as such person's estate, under the 12th, but not under the 5th mode of gaining a settlement. 13 Mass. 460. 15 Mass. 253.

35. The taxes must be paid during five years: it is not sufficient that they were paid part of the time, and remitted by a vote of the town for the remainder. 19 Pick. 389.

The neglect to enforce the collection of a tax will not operate as a payment, upon the question of settlement. 20 Pick. 345.

36. A settlement is not gained by a person's residing in a town for ten years together and possessing real and personal estate, if the assessors omit to tax him; though such omission is not on account of his infirmity or poverty or by mistake, but in order to prevent his acquiring a settlement. 10 Met. 115.

37. If one own a farm, and reside thereon ten years, paying the taxes five years, he will acquire a settlement in the town, notwithstanding he have a family in another State, which he occasionally visits. 13 Mass. 501.

38. The payment of a highway tax for five years, coupled with the prescribed term of residence, gives a settlement. 16 Mass. 235.

39. A person does not acquire a legal settlement by residing in a town ten years together and paying taxes for any five of those ten years, if within that time he is committed to gaol and while there applies for and receives relief as a pauper from the gaoler. 12 Pick. 1.

40. The settlement is gained even though the wife of the pauper receives assistance in another town, without her husband's knowledge. 19 Pick. 480.

41. The fourth mode of acquiring a settlement under the statute of 1793, ch. 34, was the following:

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Any person of twenty-one years of age being a citizen of the United States, having an estate of inheritance or freehold in the town where he dwells and has his home, of the clear yearly income of three pounds, and taking the rents and profits thereof three years successively, whether he lives thereupon or not, shall thereby gain a settlement therein."

As many settlements were gained under this provision between February 11th, 1794, and February 21st, 1822, we will notice some of the expositions of it by the Court.

42. If a person was lawfully in possession of an estate as above described, taking the rents and profits, he gained a settlement, although his title to the estate was defeasible. 11 Mass. 327.

43. The clear yearly income, must have been three pounds free from all charges, and if the estate was mortgaged the interest of the mortgage must have been deducted. 6 Mass. 50. 11 Mass. 327.

44. The annual income must have been three pounds, each and every year, otherwise the estate did not communicate a settlement. 3 Pick. 198.

45. It is necessary that the owner should have dwelt and had his home in the town where the estate was situated during the whole of the same three years. 14 Mass. 384.

46. If the estate was held in trust, the person for whom it was so held acquired a settlement by taking the rents and profits three years successively. 2 Pick. 28.

47. So if a person in possession of an estate of freehold lease the same in payment of a debt, he will be seized notwithstanding the lease, and will be considered as receiving the rents and profits. 5 Pick. 449.

48. By the provincial acts, 4th of William & Mary (1692) ch. 13, and 12th and 13th of William 3, (1700 & 1701) ch. 10, explaining by an act in the 13th of George 2, (1739) it was provided, that in addition to obtaining a settlement by the approbation of the town at a meeting of the inhabitants regularly assembled, or the approbation of the selectmen, given under their hands, any person who ! dwelt in any town twelve months, not having been warned by the constable or other person appointed by the selectmen for that service, to leave the place, should thereby gain a settlement.

No act of the assessors in rating a person subjected the town to the expense of his support, who had not remained there the twelve months, or whose dwelling there had not been approved by the town or selectmen.

In order to prevent a settlement by warning, it was necessary that the name of the person warned, the time of his abode in the town, and the time when the warning was given should be returned to the Court of Quarter Sessions. 4th William and Mary ch. 13.

49.

The "warning out laws," as they have been called, were repealed on the 10th of April, 1767. From that date

to June 23d, 1789, no settlement could be gained except by approbation of the town at a general meeting of the inhabitants.

50. The statute passed June 23d, 1789, after confirm ing settlements then gained, provided the following modes of acquiring them :

I. "Every person being a citizen of the Commonwealth, who shall be seized of an estate of freehold in the town, of the clear annual income of three pounds, and shall reside thereon, or within the same town, occupying and improv ing the same in person for the space of two whole years, shall thereby gain a settlement.” Stat. 1789, ch. 14, § 1.

II. Any citizen of this Commonwealth, who shall have and obtain the vote of any town or district at a regular meeting, to be admitted and received an inhabitant thereof, shall, from and after the passing such vote, in case such citizen shall there reside and dwell, be deemed and taken to be an inhabitant of the same. Stat. 1789, ch. 14, § 2.

III. Every woman, by intermarrying with an inhabitant of any town or district, shall by such marriage be deemed and taken to be an inhabitant of the same town or district with her husband; and children born in wedlock at the time of their birth, and afterwards, shall be deemed and taken as inhabitants of the same town or district with their parents; and children otherwise born, shall be deemed and taken to be inhabitants with the mother, until they shall have obtained a legal settlement or habitancy in some other town or district; but no person shall have more than one place of legal settlement at one and the same time, but upon obtaining a new place of settlement, shall be deemed and taken voluntarily to have relinquished any former one. Ib. § 3.

Other modes of acquiring settlements were presented, but the statute was repealed before settlements could have been gained under them.

The statute was repealed on the eleventh of February, 1794.

51. No person who had begun to acquire a settlement, by the laws in force at and before the time when the provisions of the revised statutes took effect, in any of the ways in which any time is prescribed for a residence, or the continuance or succession of any other act or acts, shall be prevented or delayed by those provisions; but he shall acquire a settlement by a continuation of the same residence or other act or acts in the same time and manner as if the former laws had continued in force. R. S. ch. 45, § 2. 52. Every legal settlement shall continue till it shall be lost or defeated, by acquiring a new one within this state; and upon acquiring such new settlement, all former settlements shall be defeated and lost. Ib. § 3.

53. Persons who reside on lands purchased by, or ceded to, the United States, for navy yards, forts, and arsenals, under the Massachusetts statutes, do not thereby gain a settlement for themselves or their children. 1 Met. 580.