DEVINE. 182 DEVONIAN SYSTEM. DEVINE, dt-vin'. Edwakd Thomas (1867—). An Amciiiiin direitor of charitable work, born at Liiioii. Iowa. Ho •.■radualoU in ISSST at (.'ormdl College (Iowa), was priueipal ol various schools from ISSC. to 18!I0, and from ISiM to 18!ltj was swretary of the American Society for the Exten- sion of University Teachinj.'. In 18t»0 lie was unpointed general secretary of the Charily Or- ganization Society of New York. His publica- tions include: lUuiiomics (1898) and The Prac- tice of rlHirihi (I'.tOl). DE VINNE, dfvin'ii*, TuEonORE Low (1828 ). An American i)rinter, born at Stamford, Conn, lie learned the ijrintinj; trade in the ollice of the Newbnrgh (X. Y.) <lu:ctte, entered the esUiblishmeiil of Francis Hart in New ork City, and was a junior partner in the business from IS;')!) to 1877. The firm name having been altered in 1S83 to The.idorc L. De Vinne & Co., lie removed in 188(i to a liuildiiig designed by him. on Lafavette Place. He began to print the kSaint MchoUi.1 Matjnzinc when it was founded in 1873, and the Century .l/iisnctiic in 1874. He founded the Typothetie Society, and was elected its president iii 1800. His work has done much for the improvement of .Vmerican typography, both bv a liigh standard of press-work, and by the publication of such volumes as The hiroilwn of I'rinling (1876), Ilisloric Prinlhuj Types (1886), Plain Types (1900), Correct Composition (1901), and Title-Pages (1902). He published also the Printers' Price List (2d ed. 1871), a manual for the trade. DEVISE (same as device; OF.. Fr. devise, from ilL. divisa, judgment, contrivance, will). Strictly speaking, a testamentary gift of real property. As a verb, the term is frequently, though" improperly, employed interchangeably with ftrf/ii<(i//i (properly, to make a legacy, or testamentary gift of personal property), as sig- nifying anydisposition of real or jiersonal prop- erty by will. The person making the devise is known' as the devisor, or. more generally, the testator: the person to whom the devise is made is called the devisee. The jiower to dispose of one's estate by last will and testament is fully recognized in "all systems of law of which we have^.-iny record, but the peculiar conditions, due to the feudal system, under which our land law develoiK'd created a curious exception to this general rule ill the case of freehohl estates in land. WliiU' the common law fully recognized the right of testament, as applied to personal property of all kinds, including leasehold inter- ests in land, it did not admit the corresponding right of disposing by will of freehold interests in land. The invention of the system of uses, whereby lands were conveyed on a passive trust to one man 'to the use' "and for the benefit of another, opened the door to an evasion of this feudal re- striction. The right of the beneficiary of such a trust, called the cestui que use. not being a legal estate and so not cognizable by the courts of common law, was jirotected by the Chan- cellor as a conscientious claim against the nominal trustee, in whom the bare legal title to the lan<l was vested. The rev/ hi i/iie i/.fc was thus, by the grace of the Chancellor, permitted to make dispositions of liis beneficial interest, as it was termed, which were ilenied by the common law to the IcL'al tenant of freehold lands, and among them to make deathbed or testa- mentary disi)Ositions thereof. See Tbist; I se. This'practice of devi^illg the use of lands be- came so comiMon that, upon the abolition ol such e<iuilablc interests by llie Statute of I'scs (27 Hen. VIU. c. 10) in lo.'l.), the demand for a con- venient and legalized method of disposing of free- hold interests in land by testamcnl ln-came ir- resistible, and resulted "five years later in the )>assing of the first Statute of Wills (32 Hen. VIII. c. 1). This statute was the origin of de- vises of lands, as we understand the term, and granted "fuUand free liberty, power, and au- thority" to dispose by last will and testament in writing of all lands, tenements, and heredita- ments, saving only one-third of all lands held by the tenure of knight's service. This restriction was removed by subsequent legislation, and in 1837 a comprehensive statute, the present Wills Act (7 Wni. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 26), was enacted, by which all devices of lands in England have since been regulated. The earliest American statutes were modeled upon the statute of 32 Hen. VIII.. excepting the icstriction upon the devising of lands held by knight's service, which, as that tenure never existed on this side of the Atlantic, had no application in this country. Everywhere in the I'nited States freehold interests in lands may now be devised by last will and IcstaTucnt in sub- stantially the saine manner as jiersonal property, the matter being regulated by statutes of the several States. See ii i.. Notwithstanding the general assimilation of the process of dis]iosing of lands to that of be- queathing personal property by will, devises re- tain many of the distinctive cliaracteristics im- pressed upon them by their origin and early his- tory in chancery. They are subject to peculiar rules of interpretation and they have, under the title of executory devises, contributed a large and important body of doctrine to the law of future estates. See" ExEriTOitv Df.visk: Fitire Estate: and the authorities referred to under those titles. DEVIZES, di^-vi'zcz. . municipal borough and iiiaikct town of Wiltshire, England, near the Avon and Kennet Canal, 22 miles north-north- west of Salisbury (Map: England, E .'>). It has two ancient Norman churches and a spacious corn exchange, the town being an important grain market. There are also manufactures of snulT and malt. The town owns its gas and water supply. Population, in 1901, O.'iOO. Ko- man lunisehold gods and coins have been found here. The name of the town is supposed to have been derived from Diris(r. signifying the bound- ary between three parishes. Its first charter was granted by Queen Matilda when it was calh-d De Vies. ' It grew up around a castle built by Roger, IMshop of Salisbury, in the time of Henry I. This castle was repeatedly captured during the vars of Stephen and Matilda and taken by Cromwell in 161:-.. From the time of Henry VIII. till about 1820. Devizes was the scat of extensiv ■ doth manufailiircs. DEVCNIAN SYSTEM. A divisiim of geol- ogy, next above the Silurian and below the Car- bonifcTous: so called lieeause it was first de- scribed from Devon. England. The name was su"gested by Murchison and Sedgvick to replace that of Olil Red Sandstone. It is sometimes
