IN SENATE, April 4, 1833. REPORT Of the committee on claims, on the memorial of the Leake and Watts Orphan House, in the city of New-York. Mr. Sherman, from the committee on claims, to whom was referred the memorial of the Leake and Watts Orphan House, in the city of New-York, REPORTED: That by the will of John G. Leake, of the eity of New-York, he devised and bequeathed his real and personal estate, upon a certain contingency, to certain trustees, for the purpose of purchasing ground to erect and endow a building for the maintenance and education of helpless orphan children, paying no regard to the land of their nativity or the religious persuasion of their parents, until they should arrive at a suitable age to be put out apprentices to learn some proper trade or calling. The memorialists are the trustees designated in said will, and have been incorporated by an act of the Legislature, passed 7th March, 1831, entitled "An act to incorporate the Leake and Watts Orphan House in the city of New-York." The will has been decided to be valid in relation to personal property, but not having been attested according to the requisitions of the then existing statute, was inoperative to carry into effect the intention of the testator in relation to his real estate. Mr. Leake having died without heirs, such real estate has escheated to the people of this State. By the death of Robert Watts, the devisee of the personal property, the same became vested in his father, John Watts, who has, with great liberality, relinquished the same to the charitable institution aforesaid, and it has been duly assigned to your memorialists as trustees of the said Orphan House. By the provisions of said will, no part of the estate so devised and bequeathed is to be applied to the erection of a building, but the same is to be defrayed out of the rents, issues and profits thereof; and consequently it is not in the power of the memorialists to carry into effect the design of the testator, from the limited income of the personal estate. By the escheat of the real estate, the Legislature have it in their power to enable the memorialists to accomplish the object of the founders of this excellent charity, by permitting the avails of such real estate to be applied towards the purchase of ground and the erection of necessary buildings thereon. The trustees express the hope that the Legislature will not be less generous than Mr. Watts, and will not permit the informality of the will to deprive this charitable institution of the lands, or the proceeds thereof, which were jeft by the testator, and intended for its endowment. From inquiries made by the committee, it appears that this real estate, and the proceeds of such as have been sold, after deducting an appropriation for making a road in the northern part of the State, is estimated at about seventy-two thousand dollars. The memorialists say that this appropriation will enable them at once to enter upon the duties confided to them, by the erection of suitable buildings and the accommodation of as many helpless orphan children as the income of the personal estate will support. These helpless beings have been lamentably increased by the fatal pestilence which prevailed in the city of New-York during the last season, It has been estimated that one thousand of these helpless beings, in the city of New-York alone, have been cast upon the hands of charity and become a charge upon the bounty of the public during the last summer, and whose parents have been swept off by the cholera. The committee, after duly considering the subject referred to them, recommend that the Legislature lend their aid in carrying into effect the charitable purposes of the memorialists, by relinquishing their claim to the escheated property, which may be considered as resting on the defective form of the will of the testator. With this view of the subject, your committee have prepared a bill to vest in the trustees of the Leake and Watts Orphan House, the right of the State to the lands in question, or the proceeds thereof, and ask for leave to introduce the same, |