-OOK IV. lt of all s father a Cecilia ge Stiles ll had to Walter, e issue of f the half grandfan default ady seen, ssue of the (21); then on in the 2, till both father, are the pater 5); then to other (26); rnal line, or haser, but the CH. II.] m OF TITLE BY DESCENT. plained. And the like rule as is there exemplified, will John Stiles be the perso The student should also bear in mind, that, during this in the table whole process, John Stiles is the person supposed to have supposed to been last actually seised or entitleda of the estate. For, if last entitled ever it comes to vest in any other person, as heir to John Stiles, a new order of succession must be observed upon the death of such heir; since he, by his own seisin or title, now becomes himself an ancestor or stipes, and must be put in the place of John Stiles. The figures therefore denote the order, in which the several classes will succeed to John Stiles, and not to each other; and before we search for an heir in any of the higher figures, (No. VIII.) or (14.), we must be first assured that all the lower classes (from No. (I) to No. (VII), or from (1) to (13) were extinct at John Stiles's decease. What pro perty the ne to. It should further be observed, that the new act extends to all hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, whether act extends freehold or copyhold, and whether descendible according to the common law or according to the custom of gavelkind, borough English, or other custom." m See page 146. n See ante, p. 136, 137. • 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 106, s. 1. [ 241 ] Purchase. Legal definiion of. Examples of purchase. CHAPTER THE THIRD. OF TITLE BY PURCHASE; AND FIRST, BY ESCHEAT. a PURCHASE, perquisitio, taken in its largest and most extensive sense, may now be defined to be the possession of lands and tenements, which a man hath by his own act or agreement, or by the devise or gift of his ancestor, and not by mere descent from any of his ancestors or kindred. In this sense it is contradistinguished from acquisition by right of blood, and includes every other method of coming to an estate, but merely that by inheritance: wherein the title is vested in a person, not by his own act or agreement, but by the single operation of law; which title we have seen has been recently much narrowed. It is proper, however, to observe, that in the construction of the late inheritance act, (3 & 4 W. IV. c. 106.) the word purchaser, has a more limited meaning than formerly. Purchase, indeed, in its vulgar and confined acceptation, is applied only to such acquisitions of land as are obtained by way of bargain and sale, for money or some other valuable consideration. But this falls far short of the legal idea of purchase: for if I give land freely to another, he is in the eye of the law a purchasere; and falls within Littleton's definition, for he comes to the estate by his own agreement, that is, he consents to the gift. A man who has his father's estate settled upon him in tail, before he was born, is also a purchaser; for he takes quite another estate than the law of descents would have given him. Nay, even if the ancestor devises his estate to his heir at law by will, with other limitations, or in any other shape than the course of descents would direct, such heir shall a Litt. Sec. 12. b See ante, p. 131. Co. Litt. 13. • See 3 & 4 W. 4, 106, sec. 1, cited post, p. 155. e Co. Litt. 18. f See post, p. 155. [242] Shelley's take by purchase. But if a man seised in fee, before the recent statute, devised his whole estate to his heir at law, so that the heir took neither a greater nor a less estate by the devise than he would have done without it, he was adjudged to take by descent, even though it were charged with incumbrances; h this being for the benefit of creditors, and others, who had demands on the estate of the ancestor. But as we have seen this rule is now altered with respect to devises by testators who shall die after the 31st day of December 1833. If a remainder be limited to the heirs of Sempronius, here Sempronius himself takes nothing; but if he dies during the continuance of the particular estate, his heirs shall take as purchasers. But, if an estate be The rule in made to A. for life, remainder to his right heirs in fee, his case. heirs shall take by descent: for it is an ancient rule of law, commonly called the rule in Shelley's case, from the name of a leading case in which it was recognized, that wherever the ancestor takes an estate for life, the heir cannot by the same conveyance take an estate in fee by purchase, but only by descent. And if A. dies before entry, still his heir shall take by descent, and not by purchase; for, where the heir takes any thing that might have vested in the ancestor, he takes by way of descent. The ancestor, during his life, beareth in himself all his heirs ;m and therefore, when once he is or might have been seised of the lands, the inheritance so limited to his heirs vests in the ancestor himself: and the word "heirs" in this case is not esteemed a word of purchase, but a word of limitation, enuring so as to increase the estate of the ancestor from a tenancy for life to a fee-simple. And, had it been otherwise, had the heir (who is uncertain till the death of the ancestor) been allowed to take as a purchaser originally nominated in the deed, as must have been the case if the remainder had been expressly limited to Matthew or Thomas by name; then, in the times of strict feodal tenure, the lord would have been defrauded by such a limitation of the fruits of his signiory, arising from a descent to the heir. f Lord Raym. 728. g Roll. Abr. 626. h Salk. 241; Lord Raym. 728. i See ante, p. 131. j 1 Roll. Abr. 627. k 1 Rep. 93, 104; 2 Lev. 60; Raym. 334. 1 1 Rep. 98. m Co. Litt. 22. |