If all the subscribing witnesses are dead, insane, blind, or deaf and dumb, except one (1), that witness may prove the execution of the instrument before the clerk or deputy clerk of the county, the handwriting of the other witness being proved by some other person.
Code 1858, § 2055 (deriv. Acts 1831, ch. 90, § 10); Shan., § 3730; mod. Code 1932, § 7645; impl. am. Acts 1978, ch. 934, §§ 22, 36; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 64-2304.