§ 202 — Trusts for Shakers and Friends

§ 202. Trusts for Shakers and Friends. All deeds or declarations of\ntrust of real or personal property, executed and delivered before\nJanuary first, eighteen hundred and thirty, or since May fifth, eighteen\nhundred and thirty-nine, to any person in trust for any United Society\nof Shakers, or heretofore executed and delivered to any person or\npersons in trust for any meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, or\nany of the purposes thereof, and the legal estates, interests and trusts\npurported to be conveyed, created or declared thereby, shall be valid.\nTrusts of real or personal property, for the benefit and use of the\nmembers of any United Society of Shakers, or of any meeting of the\nReligious Society of Friends, or any of the purposes thereof, may\nhereafter be created, according to the religious constitution of such\nsociety of Shakers, or the regulations and rules of discipline of such\nSociety of Friends. Such deeds or declarations of trust, heretofore or\nhereafter executed and delivered, shall vest in the trustees the legal\nestates and interests purported to be conveyed or declared thereby, to\nand for the uses and purposes declared therein; and such legal estates\nand trusts, and all legal authority with which the original trustees\nwere vested by virtue of their appointment and conferred powers, shall\ndescend to their successors in office or trust, who may be chosen in\nconformity to the constitution of such society, or the directions of\nsuch meeting. In case of the death of all the trustees of any trust for\nthe benefit of any meeting of the Religious Society of Friends or any of\nthe purposes thereof, heretofore appointed, or who may be hereafter\nappointed by virtue of this section, any such meeting may appoint a\ntrustee or trustees in place of such person or persons, and the person\nor persons thus appointed by such meeting shall succeed to, and be\ninvested with, all the powers, rights and duties conferred by this\nsection and the deed or declaration of trust upon the trustee or\ntrustees. In case of the consolidation of two or more meetings of the\nReligious Society of Friends into one meeting, all real and personal\nproperty held in trust for either or any of the meetings so\nconsolidated, or any of the purposes thereof, shall continue to be\nvested in the trustees holding the same at the time of such\nconsolidation, until their successors shall be chosen as above provided.\nSuch consolidated meeting shall have the same rights, powers and duties\nin respect to such property, estates and trusts and in respect to the\nappointment of such trustees and their successors as the meetings so\nconsolidated or either of them previously had. This section does not\nimpair or diminish the rights of any person, meeting or association\nclaiming to be a meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, which such\nperson, meeting, or association claiming to be a meeting, had to any\nreal or personal property held in trust for the use and benefit of any\nmeeting of such society, before the division of such society which took\nplace at the annual meeting held in the city of New York in May,\neighteen hundred and twenty-eight. An incorporated or unincorporated\nsociety or meeting of Shakers or the Religious Society of Friends may\ntake and hold property of the value or yearly income permitted by\nstatute to a corporation other than a stock corporation. No person shall\nbe a trustee at the same time of more than one society of Shakers or\nmeeting of Friends. A society of Shakers includes all persons of the\nreligious belief of the people called Shakers, resident within the same\ncounty.\n