ACT OF INCORPORATION. PASSED 26 MARCH, 1887. An Act to incorporate the Tilden Trust, for the establishment and maintenance of a Free Library and Reading Room in the City of New York. Whereas, John Bigelow, Andrew H. Green and George W. Smith, the executors and trustees of the last will and testament of Samuel J. Tilden, deceased, have, in pursuance of provisions of said will and testament, made application to the Legislature for the enactment of the following act; and Whereas, The said executors and trustees deem it inexpedient to designate any purposes of the corporation herein and hereby created other than the establishment and maintenance of a Free Library and Reading Room in the city of New York, in accordance with the purpose and intention of said testator; The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. The said John Bigelow, of Highland Falls, in Orange County, and Andrew H. Green and George W. Smith, of the city of New York, and such other persons as they may associate with themselves, and their successors are hereby created a body corporate and politic under the name and title of The Tilden Trust. Section 2. The said John Bigelow, Andrew H. Green and George W. Smith, shall be permanent trustees of such corporation in accordance with the intention of the said will in that behalf. Within ninety days from the passage of this act they shall designate and appoint, in writing, other trustees, so that the number of trustees shall not be less than five. Section 3. One-half of the other trustees so designated and appointed shall hold office for the term of one year, and the other half thereof for the term of two years. After such designation and appointment shall have been made, every trustee appointed to fill any vacancy in the Board of Trustees shall hold office for the term of two years. Any vacancy which may at any time occur in said Board through death, resignation, incapacity, expiration of term or otherwise, shall be filled by the remaining trustees. Section 4. All the powers of the said corporation shall be vested in the trustees. They shall have the power to appoint a president and vice-president, secretary and treasurer, of whom the secretary and treasurer need not be members of said board. Such officers shall hold their offices upon such tenure, and shall receive such compensation as the by-laws may prescribe. trustees shall also have power to appoint such other officers and agents as the proper conduct of the affairs of said corporation shall require, removable at the pleasure of the board and to fix their compensation. Section 5. The said corporation shall have, in addition to the powers now conferred by law upon all corporations as such, the capacity and power to establish and maintain a free library and reading-room in the city of New York, and for these purposes it shall have power to demand, recover, accept and receive all such money and other property, real or personal, as is given to it by virtue of the will of Samuel J. Tilden, or shall be conveyed or transferred to, or in any manner bestowed upon it by the aforesaid executors and trustees by virtue of the powers therein conferred upon them; and the said corporation shall have power to hold, manage, improve, dispose of and convey all property at any time received or acquired by it, in such manner as may be best calculated to carry out its objects and purposes. Section 6. The said corporation shall accept and receive all G. such money or other property as is given to it by the said will of Samuel J. Tilden, or shall be conveyed or transferred to, or in any manner bestowed upon it as aforesaid by the aforesaid executors and trustees, subject to the terms and conditions expressed in and imposed by the said will of Samuel J. Tilden, in respect to the gift or gifts therein and thereby made or provided for, to a corporation to be formed and to be known as the Tilden Trust, and the said corporation shall have power to make and enter into any obligation or obligations to secure due compliance with such terms and conditions. Section 7. The said corporation shall possess the powers, and, except as may be otherwise provided by this act, be subject to the provisions, liabilities and restrictions contained in the third title of the eighteenth chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes, but nothing herein contained shall affect the rights of any parties to any action now pending or of any heir at law of said Samuel J. Tilden, deceased. Section 8. This act shall take effect immediately. XXIV. CONVEYANCE OF THE TILDEN ESTATE TO THE TILDEN TRUST. DATED, 29 APRIL, 1887. RECORDED IN NEW YORK Register's OffICE, 30 APRIL, 1887. This Indenture, made the twenty-ninth day of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven, between John Bigelow, Andrew H. Green and George W. Smith, the executors and trustees under the last will and testament of Samuel J. Tilden, deceased, parties of the first part, and the Tilden Trust, a body corporate and politic, created under the laws of the State of New York, party of the second part. Whereas, Samuel J. Tilden, of Graystone, in the city of Yonkers, County of Westchester, in the State of New York, departed this life on the fourth day of August, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, leaving his last will and testament in writing, dated on the twenty-third day of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four, wherein and whereby the said John Bigelow, Andrew H. Green and George W. Smith were nominated, constituted and appointed executors and trustees; and Whereas, the said last will and testament was afterwards and on the twentieth day of October, 1886, duly admitted to probate by Owen T. Coffin, Esq., Surrogate of the County of Westchester, at a Surrogate's Court held at White Plains, in the said County, on that day, and letters testamentary were on the same day issued to the said John Bigelow, Andrew H. Green and George W. Smith, and they each thereupon duly qualified and accepted the office of executor of said last will and testament, and took upon themselves the duties of said office, and also accepted the trusts created in and by the said will; and Whereas, the said Samuel J. Tilden, after making in and by his said will provisions for the payment of his debts and divers legacies in the form of trusts and otherwise, for particular persons, and also certain provisions for the establishment and maintenance of a library and free reading room in his native town of New Lebanon, in the State of New York, and for the establishment of another library and free reading room in the city of Yonkers, in the same State, did further in and by the thirtyfifth article of his said will make provisions for the establishment and maintenance of a free library and reading room in the city of New York, which said thirty-fifth article is in the following words, namely: Thirty-fifth. I request my said Executors and Trustees to obtain as speedily as possible from the Legislature an act of incorporation of an institution to be known as the Tilden Trust, with capacity to establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the city of New York, and to promote such scientific and educational objects as my said Executors and Trustees may more particularly designate. Such corporation shall have not less than five trustees, with power to fill vacancies in their number; and in case said institution shall be incorporated in a form and manner satisfactory to my said Executors and Trustees during the lifetime of the survivor of the two lives in being upon which the trust of my general estate herein created, is limited, to wit: the lives of Ruby S. Tilden and Susie Whittlesey, I hereby authorise my said Executors and Trustees to organize the said corporation, designate the first trustees thereof, and to convey to or apply to the use of the same the rest, residue and remainder of all my real and personal estate not specifically disposed of by this instrument, or so much. thereof as they may deem expedient, but subject nevertheless to the special trusts herein directed to be constituted for particular persons, and to the obligations to make and |