JOSIAH HOLLY vs. ISAAC P. FREEMAN, ADM'OR &c., 2 Ired. 218

Daniel, J. The statute declares that the presumption of payment shall arise in ten years after the right of action shall have accrued, under the same rules as theretofore existed at law in such cases. Rev. Stat. c. 65, s. 13. The Legislature has. therefore said, that forbearance for so long a time as ten years, unexplained, is a circumstance, from which the jury ought to infer that the debt has been satisfied.

However, the presumption arising after such a lapse of time may be repelled by the defendant’s admission of the debt, or payment of interest within ten years; or the presumption may be answered by the proof of other circumstances, explaining satisfactorily why an earlier demand has not been made. More than fourteen years after this bond was due, the obli-gor was spoken to about it, when she said that she believed she had paid it. It seems to us that this evidence, so far from repelling the presumption of payment, which time had raised in her favor, rather went to strengthen that presumption.

We think the judge was right in saying that it was no evidence to go to the jury to repel the presumption of payment, which the statute had raised. Per CuRiam, Judgment below affirmed.