The partitioners shall have the power to select a surveyor to aid them in the discharge of their duties. After giving all the parties, if possible, at least eight days' notice of the time of executing the writ and after being sworn to execute the writ duly and impartially before an officer authorized by law to administer such oath, the partitioners or a majority of them shall proceed to make a just and equal partition and division of all the lands and tenements, either in entire tracts or in parcels, as they shall judge, according to the best of their skill, ability, and knowledge, to be in proportion to the shares claimed and to be most beneficial to the several common owners of the lands and tenements. They shall return the writ, with their actings and doings thereon and under their hands and seals, to the superior court within three months after its issuance, which return shall be filed and kept by the clerk until the next term of the court.