Having thus noticed the general rule respecting derivative settlements, we come next to some applications of it, tending to show its. universality; and then to consider how derivative settlements are superseded by acquired ones, as this is the most fruitful source of appeals to the Quarter Sessions. The position advanced, being, that the settlement of the father is the settlement of his legitimate child, the corrollaries from this proposition are: 1st. That proofs of the father's settlement are sufficient to establish the settlement of the child, if nothing appear to the contrary.* tainder. And such a personal right is this in the Father's atchildren to their father's settlement, that it is not defeated by his attainder ;† nor by the removal of his residence: nor by the change Change of of his (the father's) settlement, for the child's of father, shall follow it toties quoties;§ nor by the fa- death, &c. ther's death either before, or after, the birth of the child.j settlement tlement always to be 2dly. That no recourse shall be had to a Father's setsecondary claim of settlement (for example the mother's) till the primary one, viz. the father's, has been traced back so far as it will go. * 6 Term Rep. 56.-2 Bott. 31. † 6 Term Rep. 116.-15 East's R. 463. 2 Ses. Ca. 150, § 3 Salk. 259. 19 Vin. 382.-2 Bolt. 19. R preferred to the mother's On however de rived. Mother's settlement resorted to this principle it was determined, that children Proof of any settlement in the father failing, the mother's settlement must be next resorted to. And it matters not whether such settlein failure of ment of the mother (none being discoverable in the father) were by her birth, derivative from her parents, or acquired by herself, either during the life of her husband, or subsequent to his decease.† father's. How far the We have seen that the settlements of children settlements derived from their father, change with his. of-children derived Settlements derived from the mother also from their mother, change with hers, while acquired by her in change her own right, either as the wife, or the widow, with her of a husband having no settlement; but if settlement. after the death of such husband, she marry a man with a settlement, and thereby partake of his settlement, she does not communicate such second husband's settlement to the children by her former husband. cliange of Emancipa tion. We come next to consider what acts of the children defeat their derivative settlements, or as it is termed, amount to EMANCIPATION. * Burr. S. C. 482. ↑ Burr.S. C. 367.-2 Bott. 26 and 28. Cald. Ca. 10. A legitimate child shall necessarily follow the settlement of one, or the other, of its parents, as requiring nurture, till it be seven years of age, and therefore as part of the parents family; but after that age it shall not be removed at part of the parents family, but by an express adjudication of the place of its own legal settlement, whether it still retain its derivative one, or not. The reason of this is, that, at seven years of age, a child may be put an apprentice, and has therefore itself a capacity to acquire a settlement. So that at seve, Earliest period to years and forty days a child may have defeated gain an ac it derivative settlement, and acquired apersonal quired setsettlement of its own. These personal settlements may be obtained by a great variety of methods, as apprenticeship, hiring and service, marriage, renting a tenement, possessing an estate, serving an office, &c. But a child may also be emancipated from its parents, without Emancipahaving obtained any new settlement for itself, tion, how produced. or having done any thing to supersede its original derivative one. The cases which go.. vern this head of law are extremely numerous, but the criterion by which the fact of emancipation is to be collected from them, is as follows; Ordinarily," said Lord Kenyon, 66 one of these things must happen,-either a child must have obtained a settlement for himself, or he must have become the head of a family, or at all events, must have arrived at tlement. Acquired apprenticeships.. that age when he may set up in the world for himself, having contracted some relation, which is inconsistent with the idea of being under the controul of, or in a subordinate situation in, his father's family.' "* And, in a subsequent case, the same Chief Justice laid down_a_rule, which, he observed, would re concile all the cases on emancipation, in these words:" If a child be separated from his or her parents, and without obtaining any personal settlement, return to the parents during the age of pupilage, such child remains part of the parent's family; but if when, by estimation of law, a child wants no further protection from the parents, and removes from them, such child shall not, for the purpose of a derivative settlement, be deemed part of the parent's family."+ APPRENTICESHIP appears to be the earliest settlement; mode by which an adventitious, or personal, and first by settlement can be acquired. It has been already observed, that the limit of age of nurture has been fixed at seven years, and by a statute of Queen Eliz. at that period the children of the poor may be even compelled to go into apprenticeships. * 3 Term. R. 114.-ld. 355. + 2 Bott. 46. + 43 Eliz. c. 2 By a previous stat, at the very commencement of the same Queen's reign, the qualifications of persons entitled to take, and to become, apprentices, had been regulated. Efflux of time, and the progress of commerce, however, had made many of its provisions inconvenient, and had occasioned many of its restrictions and penalties to fall into disuse; wherefore they were repealed by the 54th of the present King, chap. 96, and are unnecessary to be further noticed here; especially as, by the third section of the last mentioned statute, all the power and authority relative to apprenticeships is reserved to the Justices generally, as had been given to them specially over apprenticeships contracted by the authority, and regulated by the restrictions, of this repealed statute of Elizabeth, The contract itself, by which the relation of master and apprentice is formed; the residence under it, and the effects of that residence; the premature conclusion, and the evidence to support, or to aunul, such contract; severally give occasion, to numerous Appeals. A few observations therefore on each of these particulars; and first, of The Contract itself. tract. 1st. The contract may be made by any per- The conson more than seven years of age for him, or her self, (for being evidently and invariably supposed to be for the child's benefit, it is a |