and neuter; the singular number includes the plural, and the plural, the singular; the word person includes a corporation as well as a natural person; writing includes printing or printed paper; signature or subscription includes mark, when, the person cannot write, his name being written near it, and witnessed by a person who writes his own name as a witness. §722. The terms explained in the following sections of this chapter have, in this code, the significations attached to them, unless it is otherwise apparent from the context. § 723. The words "real property" mean lands, tenements, and hereditaments. § 724. The words "personal property" include slaves, money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. § 725. The word "property" includes property, real and personal. § 726. The word "clerk" means the clerk of the court in which the action is brought or is pending, or in which the proceeding is had; and the words "clerk's office" mean his office. § 727. The words "presiding judge of the county court" signify the presiding judge of the county court of the county in which the action is brought or is pending, or in which the proceeding is had. § 728. The word "sheriff" means the sheriff of the county in which the action is brought or is pending, or in which the proceeding is had, or to which the process is directed; and where it is used in connection with any process or order, or the execution thereof, or of any ministerial act, shall be taken to signify also any other officer to whom the process or order may be directed, and who may be acting under it, or by whom the ministerial act may be performed. 1851. Terms-signi. fications. Real property. Personal property. Property. Clerk. Presiding judge of county court. Sheriff. Coroner, justice, jailer, con § 729. The words "coroner," "justice," "jailer," and "constable," mean officers of the county in which the action is stable, brought or is pending, or in which the proceeding is had, or to which the process is directed. § 730. The words "personal representative" signify the executor or administrator of a deceased person, or the officer or other person appointed to take charge of his estate. §731. A "foreign corporation" is one created by the laws of some other state or country. § 732. The words "other country" signify any part of the world out of this state. § 733. The words "United States" embrace every state in the union, all the territories thereof, and the District of Columbia. §734. The words "person of unsound mind" include every person who is an idiot, lunatic, or deranged. § 735. The word "oath" includes affirmation in any case in which it may be substituted for an oath, and in like cases the word "sworn" includes "affirmed." Personal representative. Foreign corporation. Other country. United States. Person of un. sound mind. Oath. 1851. Month. Writ. code to be libe § 736. The word "month" means calendar month. $737. "Process" is a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. § 738. "Writ" is an order or precept in writing, issued by a court, clerk, or judicial officer. § 739. The rule of the common law that statutes in deProvisions of rogation thereof are to be strictly construed, shall not be rally construed. applied to this code. The provisions of this code, and all proceedings under it, shall be liberally construed, with a view to promote its object, and to assist the parties in obtaining justice. § 740. All statutes and laws heretofore in force in this state in any case provided for by this code or inconsistent with its provisions, are hereby repealed and abrogated; but this repeal does not revive any statute or law which may have been repealed or abolished by the statutes or laws hereby repealed; nor does it affect any right already existing, or any proceeding already taken, except as provided in this code. § 741. This act shall take effect on the first day of August next. Approved March 22, 1851. may not marry. CHAPTER 617. AN ACT to revise the statutes. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, That the following chapters of the revised statutes of this commonwealth be adopted, and that they shall become the law of the land and take effect on the first day of July, 1852. CHAPTER I. HUSBAND AND WIFE. ARTICLE I. Marriage. § 1. A man shall not marry his mother, grandmother, Whom a man sister, daughter, or granddaughter; nor the wife of his father, grandfather, son, or grandson; nor the daughter, granddaughter, mother, or grandmother of his wife; nor the daughter or granddaughter of his brother or sister; nor the sister of his father or mother. Whom a woman may not marry. A woman shall not marry her father, grandfather, brother, son, or grandson; nor the husband of her mother, grandmother, daughter or granddaughter; nor the son, grandson, father, or grandfather of her husband; nor the son or grandson of her brother or sister; nor the brother of her father or mother. Where relationship is founded on marriage, the prohibition shall continue, notwithstanding the dissolution of the marriage by death or divorce, unless the divorce is for a cause that rendered the marriage originally illegal or void. This section includes illegitimate children and relatives. Marriages prohibited by this section are incestuous and void. § 2. Marriage is prohibited and declared void 1. With an idiot or lunatic; 1851. In what cases marriage pro. 2. Between a white person and a negro, or mulatto, hibited and debond or free; 3. Where there is a husband or wife living from whom the person marrying has not been lawfully divorced, with a privilege to re-marry; 4. When not solemnized or contracted in the presence of an authorized person or society; clared void. The issue of an 5. When, at the time of marriage, the male is under the age of fourteen or the female is under twelve years. § 3. The issue of an illegal or void marriage shall nev illegal marriage. ertheless be legitimate, except that the issue of an incestuous marriage, found such by the conviction, judgment, or decree of court, in the lifetime of the parties, or of a marriage between a white person and a negro or mulatto, shall not be legitimate; and except, also, that where one of the parties is an idiot or lunatic, the issue shall be legitimate only as to the other party. The issue of a marriage contracted with the belief that the other party was $4. Where the marriage is contracted in good faith and with the full belief of the parties that a former husband or wife then living was dead, the issue of such marriage, born or begotten before notice of the mistake, shall be the legiti- dead. mate issue of both its parents. § 5. The courts having chancery jurisdiction may nullify and declare void a marriage obtained by force or fraud; or at the instance of any next friend, where the male was under the age of sixteen or the female under that of fourteen at the time of the marriage, and the marriage was without the consent of the father, mother, guardian, or other person having the proper charge of his or her person, and has not been ratified by cohabitation after that age. § 6. Where persons resident in this state shall attempt to evade the provisions of this chapter, declaring marriages void by going to and marrying in another state and afterwards return to and reside in this state, such marriage shall be deemed and treated as if solemnized in this state; but this section shall not apply to such evasion of the rule herein as to the mode of solemnization. § 7. No marriage solemnized before any person professing to have authority therefor shall be invalidated for the want of authority to solomnize marriage, if it is consummated with the full belief of the parties or either of them that he had such authority, and that they have been lawfully joined in marriage. Marriages obtained by force or fraud may be declared void. 1851. Who may sol. emnize marri. ages. first obtained. 8. Marriage shall be solemnized by the following persons only- 1. Ministers of the gospel or priests of any denomination in regular communion with any religious society. 2. Judges of the county court, and such justices of the peace as the county court may authorize. 3. Or, where either party belongs to a religious society having no officiating priest or minister, whose usage is to solemnize marriage at the usual place of worship and by consent given in the presence of the society, it may be so solemnized. § 9. No minister or priest shall solemnize marriage, until License to be he has obtained a license therefor from the county court of the county where he resides, upon satisfying the court that he is a man of good moral character and in regular communion with his religious society, and upon giving covenant, to the commonwealth, with good surety, not to violate the law of this state concerning marriage. The parties to such covenant may, for a breach thereof, be fined, on the presentment of a grand jury, not exceeding two thousand dollars. Such license may be revoked by any county court, after notice to the minister or priest. 10. No marriage shall be solemnized without a license How obtained therefor issued by the clerk of a county court. It shall only issue from the clerk of the county where the female usually resides, unless she is of full age or a widow and it is issued on her own application in person or by writing signed by her. returned to the clerk of the County court. 11. If either of the parties is under twenty-one years of age and never theretofore married, no license shall issue without the consent of his or her father or guardian; or, if there is none or he is absent from the state, without the consent of his or her mother, personally given or certified in writing to the clerk over his or her signature, attested by two subscribing witnesses, and proved by the oath of one of them administered by the clerk. Nor, where the parties are not personally known to the clerk, shall a license issue until bond with good surety, in the penalty of one hundred dollars, is given to the commonwealth with condition that there is no lawful cause to obstruct the marriage. § 12. The person solemnizing the marriage, or the clerk License to be of the religious society before whom it was done, shall, within three months, return the license to the clerk of the county court whence it issued, with a certificate of the marriage over his signature giving the date and place of celebration, the names of some two or three persons present, of whom there shall never be less than two. For failing to make such return he shall be fined sixty dollars. Certificate to be filed. § 13. The certificate shall be filed away in the office and a fair register made of the parties names, of the person be fore whom, and the date when, the marriage was solemnized; and also a proper index to the book in which the register is kept. §14. If any person shall solemnize a marriage without such license, or without being authorized thereto by a county court, he shall be imprisoned not less than one nor more than twelve months and fined not more than one thousand dollars. § 15. If any person not authorized shall solemnize a marriage under pretence of having authority, or falsely personate the father, mother, or guardian in obtaining a license, he shall be confined in the penitentiary not exceeding three years. §16. If any authorized person shall knowingly, with or without license, solemnize a marriage such as is herein prohibited, he shall be imprisoned not less than one nor more than twelve months and fined not exceeding one thousand dollars. § 17. A clerk, who shall knowingly issue a license for any such prohibited marriage, shall be fined not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars and expelled from his office by the judgment of the court before which his conviction is had. And if he issue a license contrary to his duty, as herein prescribed, he shall be fined not exceeding one thousand dollars. If the license is issued by a deputy he shall be fined the same as is directed when issued by the principal; and, in the case of prohibited marriages, shall be imprisoned not more than one year. 1851. Penalty for solemnizing a marriage without license. Penalty against a clerk for issuing a license contrary to law, Judge of coun. ty court may is. sue license in the clerk. §18. In the absence of the clerk, or during a vacancy in the office, the license may be issued by a judge of the county court, who in so doing shall perform the duty and incur the absence of all the responsibllities of the clerk, and shall return a memorandum thereof to the clerk, and the same shall be recorded as if issued by him. § 19. Any party to a marriage within the incestuous degree herein prohibited, or between a white person and a negro or mulatto, shall be fined not less than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars; and if, after conviction, the parties continue to cohabit as man and wife, they or either of them shall be imprisoned not less than three nor more than twelve months. § 20. Where doubt is felt as to the validity of a marriage, either party may by bill in chancery demand its avoidance or affirmance; but where one of the parties was within the age of consent at the time of marriage, the other party being of proper age shall have no such proceeding for that cause against the party under age. Disposition of female under 16, 21. If any female under sixteen years of age marries without the consent of her father or guardian, or of her the estate of a mother, the court having chancery jurisdiction in the county of her usual residence, shall, on the petition of a next |