Justices, as Brearley, and Kinsey, and Kirkpatrick, and Ewing-to which, we may not doubt, will hereafter be added the names of others no less distinguished, but of whom I am not now permitted to speak. APPENDIX A. IN connection with the Courts of East and West Jersey, under their Proprietary Governments, it may be well to glance at some of the more important laws which were enacted. Many valuable provisions which we have ingrafted upon the common law, and which now exist in our statute book, will be found to have originated at this early period. The first step towards making lands liable for the payment of debts, was taken in East Jersey, in 1679. It was enacted, that where an execution issued against a person having lands, the defendant should make a conveyance of such lands to the plaintiff, in satisfaction of his debt; and upon his refusal to do so, he was to be imprisoned until the debt and charges were paid. And, in 1682, provision was made for having the lands of a defendant in execution appraised, and the plaintiff was to take them at their appraised value in satisfaction of his debt, paying the overplus, if any, to the defendant.2 In West Jersey, as early as 1682, lands were made liable for the payment of debts, in all cases whatever, when Grants and Concessions, 136. 2 Ib., 253. the personal estate of the defendant was insufficient for that purpose.' In East Jersey, in 1682, it was provided, that the estate of a Feme Covert might be conveyed by a deed acknowledged in the Court of Common Right, the wife declaring, upon a secret examination, that she signed it freely, without threats or compulsion of her husband. By a subsequent act, this acknowledgment might be made before a Judge of any Court of Record in the Province.3 2 By the Fundamental Constitutions of the twenty-four Proprietors of East Jersey, it was declared, that there should be a public registry for deeds, in each County, and that every grant and conveyance of land-except leases for three years and under-not registered within six months, should be void in law. A similar provision is contained in the Concessions and Agreements of the West Jersey Proprietors. And, in 1695, a law was passed in West Jersey, imposing a penalty of twenty shillings upon every person neglecting for the space of six months to have a deed recorded. In East Jersey, proceedings against non-resident debtors were authorized in 1682;7 and, in West Jersey, in 1683, an act was passed, regulating attachments against absconding debtors, and providing for an equitable distribution of their goods and estate, among such of their creditors as should come in and prove their claim before three of the Magistrates of the Province. By the laws of West Jersey, executors were required to give security for the faithful performance of their trust ;' |