There is error in the instruction given to the jury, because it excludes from consideration the evidence of the defendant as to the residence of the mortgagor at the time of the execution of the mortgage to the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs must recover upon the strength of their own title, and as against the defendant must not only show that Sheets executed a mortgage, but that the mortgage was properly registered, and if, at the time of its execution, Sheets was a resident of Randolph, there was no authority to register the mortgage in the county of Davidson, because the statute, Revisal, sec. 982, provides that chattel mortgages must be registered where the mortgagor resides.

New trial.