Whenever any purchaser or assignee of a purchaser shall die or shall have died before the issuing of a patent for the lands described in any such certificate, his executor or administrator may sell such certificate, and all the right, title and interest which the deceased had in the lands therein described, for the payment of debts, upon obtaining license therefor, and proceeding in the same manner, as near as may be, as is provided by law for the sale of real estate by executors and administrators for the payment of debts.