Section 9. A judge of probate may, in any case in which a judgment, decree, order or allowance can be made without a hearing, and in any case after a hearing, make such judgment, decree, order or allowance, and approve bonds, at any place in the commonwealth, with the same effect as if so made and approved in his county; and if such judge, under section eight of this chapter, acts in a county other than his own, such judgment, decree, order or allowance may be signed, and bonds approved, outside the county where he may have been designated to act. This section shall not affect the validity of any judgment, decree, order or allowance signed or bond approved prior to March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight.