Creswell

In August, 1888, the plaintiff Charlotte Creswell, then Charlotte Bath, was left a widow by the death of her husband, Joseph Bath. She was then nearly seventy years of age, and had no children and no relatives in this state. She owned thirty-seven acres of farming land in the county of Ventura, on which she was living, and a lot in the town of Santa Paula, the whole being of the value of about four thousand dollars. At her request, the defendant William H. Welchman, who was her nephew, and was then residing in the state of New Jersey with his wife, the other defendant, came to this state to live with and take care of her. They arrived at her home about the 1st of February, 1889, and on the twelfth of that month she, for the expressed consideration of one dollar and other good and lawful considerations, executed and delivered to them a bargain and sale deed of all her real property, but “ reserving and excepting unto the grantor herein, for her own use and benefit, a life estate in the whole of said lands hereby granted, for and during the natural life of said grantor, with the right to use, occupy, and control absolutely the said lands and tenements, and to receive, take, and have…