with Notes of Reference (1803)St. George Tucker Of Slaves, Considered as Property, in Virginia
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1. Villeins do not appear to have been liable to be taken in execution for the debt of their lords; nor would an heir at common law have been liable for the debt of his ancestor, I apprehend, merely on account of his having a villein in gross by descent. But if the lands to which a villein was regardant had been taken in execution upon a suit brought against the heir, on the obligation of his ancestor, the villein must have gone with the land. It is not therefore from any analogy between slaves and villeins, that I have ventured upon this conjectural construction, but from the former liability of slaves to be taken in execution, and sold as chattels; and the analogy which the act seems to create between them and lands descending in fee simple; which latter were clearly liable in the hands of the heir to be taken in execution for the bond debt of his ancestor, unless by mispleading he made the debt his own personally, see Plowden, 439, 440.
2. Mr. Wythe, the presiding judge on that occasion, intimated his dissent from the opinion of the court, but did not give his reasons at large.