SCOTLAND.
A curiously complicated case has just been tried at Aberdeen, before Lord Ivory and a Special Jury. The trial lasted from the 4th to the 17th instant, a period quite unparalleled in the history of Scottish Jury trials. The case involved a question of descent. It appeared that in 1749, one James Wood, a mason, settled in Kirkton of Fetteresso, near Stonehaven. In 1755, he married Jane Barclay ; whom he had five sons and three daughters; none of whom ever married. Three of the sons died abroad; the fourth went into business in Scotland, saved some money, and bought a property; the fifth, Alexander Wood, emigrated, in 1193, to Canada, and accumulated a large fortune. Alexander returned to Scotland in 1842, took up his residence at Woodcot, and died in 1844, leaving no settlement. The nearest heirs in the male line would therefore succeed to the property. Before his death, he intimated to a friend, Dr. Young, that he had no relations ;on his father's side that he was aware of, but that if there were any they must be de mended from his father's sister Margaret Wood, who married David Taylor, at Chapel of Anldbar, near Brechin. This communication set the lawyers to work; and one of them, a Mr. Alexander Smart, by great assiduity found that all the descendants of David Taylor and Margaret Wood were dead except a grand- daughter, Isabella Young; who in 1799 married a John Farrell: Farrell shortly afterwards left Brechin and settled in London. With much difficulty Mrs. Farrell was found, and inducted into the property, after a trial, in 1845. Other claim- ants, however, sprang up, and contended that the father and mother of James Wood were George Wood and Jane Young, in the Brae of Kintore; from whom the claimants were descended in a straight line. The question then was, who was the father of James Wood of Fetteresso, and consequently the grandfather of Alexander Wood? That question was again tried, in October 1846, before Lord Robertson; and Mrs. Farrell was again victorious. In cense- sequence, however, of an illegal rejection of a witness, a new trial was ordered; being the one just terminated. An immense mass of evidence was brought for- ward in support of the claim; but it failed in some material parts, particu- larly in the case of a witness named Tough, who had a good deal to prove on hearsay, which could not of course be admitted. An awkward revelation was !Bade during the progress of the pursuer's case: a family Bible and memoranda, admitted to contain the names of former families of the Woods, and to have been -in existence eighteen months ago, had since disappeared, though in the possession of the pursuers. A verdict was again returned in favour of Mrs. Farrell; who is thus confirmed in the possession of the property.
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