Greathouse of Philadelphia County, PA

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1796, Oct 31 - Estate: Administrator's Bond, John Groethaus of Springfield

Excerpt from Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Register of Wills. Book H, Folio 251, No. 185:

Joseph Mather, Administrator De Bonis Non, of Montgomery Co. Gent. and Richard Mather and Isaac Thomas both of the City of Philadelphia, Merchants gave bond of five hundred pounds to administer the estate of John Groethaus, deceased.

Signed, Sealed and delivered in the presence of

J. Wampole

Footnotes:

1) DE BONIS NON. This phrase is used in cases where the goods of a deceased person have not all been administered. When an executor or administrator has been appointed, and the estate is not fully settled, and the executor or administrator is dead, has absconded, or from any cause has been removed, a second administrator is appointed to to perform the duty remaining to be done, who is called an administrator de bonis non, an administrator of the goods not administered and he becomes by the appointment the only representative of the deceased. 11 Vin. Ab. 111; 2 P. Wms. 340; Com. Dig. Administration, B I; 1 Root's 11. 425. And it seems that though the estate has been distributed, an administrator de bonis non may be appointed, if debts remain unsatisfied. 1 Root's R. 174.

2) On September 15, 1777, John Greathouse appointed Wigard Miller the Administrator of his estate in his will, which was probated in 1791 after the death of John Greathouse.

Article: 1777 - Will: John Greathouse of Springfield

3) The estate of John Greathouse was not fully settled by the time Wigard Miller had deceased about October 27, 1795.

Article: 1795 - Will: Wigard Miller of Germantown

4) On October 31, 1796, Joseph Mather was appointed Administrator De Bonis Non over the estate of John Greathouse, with Richard Mather and Isaac Thomas serving as securities for the Administrator's bond.

5) In a 1950 letter from Edward W. Hocker to Jack Murray Greathouse, Hocker related: Letters of administration were granted in Philadelphia in these estates of persons who made no wills:

John Groethouse, 1791.
John Groethouse, 1796.

Sources:

Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Register of Wills. Book H, Folio 251, No. 185.

John Bouvier, Robert Kelham, A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union: With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law, Volume 1, Edition 11, Childs, 1864. Page 370, De Bonis Non defined.

Letter from Edward W. Hocker to Jack Murray Greathouse, Greathouse Family In America, 1950. Page 4, Letters of Administration, Philadelphia City: John Groethouse, 1791; John Groethouse, 1796.