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Elizabeth Sands being infeft in some tenements in liferent, pursues the tenants for mails and duties. It was alleged, That her infeftment could give her no title till her husband's death were instructed, for instructing whereof several witnesses were examined, and missive letters produced, and the woman herself examined, the import of all which was, that her husband Robert Christie had gone to Barbadoes, where he made a considerable stock, and became a privateer upon the coasts of Jamaica, and that the report was in Barbadoes that he was dead, and having been absent eleven years; the pursuer produced a letter about three years since, before the report of his death, containing affectionate expressions, and promising in a short time to come to Scotland; she did also depone, that she received no letters from him since that letter, nor knew any thing of his being alive.
The Lords found the evidences sufficient to instruct his death, it being positively proved that hew as a privateer, and it being reported at Barbadoes, where he resided, that he was dead, and not having returned thither where he had a considerable estate, and it being thereby evident quod versabatur in peri culis, and that he had been eleven years from his wife, and three since he wrote to her.
