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effected by sale, gift, marriage, settlement, devise, or other transmission of property by the mutual consent of the parties.

The legal evidences of this alienation of property are called common assurances, whereby any man's estate is assured to him. There are four kinds :-1. By deed. -2. By matter of record. -3. By special custom.- -4. By devise.

First, then, to explain a deed. A Deed is a writing, sealed by the parties and delivered, and the requisites are that there be persons able to contract and be contracted with, for the purposes intended by the deed; and also a thing or subject-matter to be contracted for; all which must be expressed by sufficient words. That is, in every grant there must be a grantor, a grantee, and a thing granted; and in every lease a lessor, a lessee, and a thing demised.

Secondly, the deed must be founded upon good and sufficient consideration. The consideration may be either a good or a valuable one. A good consideration is such as that of consanguinity; the gift of an estate to a near relation, being founded on motives of generosity, prudence, and natural affection. Deeds made upon these considerations are regarded only as merely voluntary, and are frequently set aside in favour of creditors and bonâ fide purchasers. A valuable consideration is such as money, marriage, or the like, which the law esteems an equivalent given for the grant, and is therefore founded in motives of justice. The deed ought to show clearly on the face of it what the consideration is, not only in order that there should be no fraud upon the revenue in respect of the stamp, but also to obviate all questions of fraud as between the parties. The deed must be either written or printed, and it must be on paper or parchment duly stamped. The language employed should be intelligible and clear. In its execution it requires to be signed, sealed, and delivered, in the presence of, and to be attested by, one, two, or more witnesses. It is necessary that the deed be read before execution if either of the parties request it; or, in case either of the signatories should be unable to write, it is absolutely necessary that the deed be read over to the party or parties, who should make his or their mark thereto; and the fact of its having been read over and that the person or persons understood the nature of the deed should be stated in the attestation clause.

Can a Deed be "Avoided" or rendered of no effect?

Yes, if it wants any of the essential requisites mentioned. Deeds may also be avoided in consequence of erasure, interlining, or other alteration in any material part, unless a memorandum be made thereof at the time of the execution and attestation. -By breaking off or defacing the seal. By delivering it up to be cancelled or defaced.- -By the disagreement of such whose concurrence is necessary in order that the deed may stand; as of the husband, where a married woman is concerned; or of an infant, or of a person under duress. By the judgment or decree of a court of judicature, when it appears that the deed was obtained by fraud or other foul practice.

Alienation by Matter of Record.

Assurances by matter of record are such as do not entirely depend on the act or consent of the parties themselves; but the sanction of a Court of Record is called in to substantiate, preserve, and be a perpetual testimony of the transfer of property from one man to another, or of its establishment when already transferred. Of this nature are:-1. Private Acts of Parliament. -2. The King's Grants.- -3. Orders made by the

Court of Chancery under certain Acts.

Private Acts of Parliament are not an uncommon mode of assurance; for it may sometimes happen that, by the ingenuity of some and the blunders of others, an estate is most grievously entangled by a multitude of contingent remainders, resulting trusts, springing uses, and other artificial contrivances, so that it is out of the power of the courts of law or equity to relieve the owner; and it is necessary to resort to the supreme power of Parliament to determine the title, and arrange the future management of the estate.*

Grants from the Crown are also matters, of public record. Royal grants by letters patent apply now only to a few incorporeal hereditaments, such as dignities, offices, and the like.

* When a trustee refuses to convey the trust property when duly required to do so, and when a mortgagee has died without having entered into possession, and there is a difficulty in obtaining a conveyance of the legal estate, see Trustee Act, 13 & 14 Vict., c. 60; extended by 15 & 16 Vict., c. 55.

ALIENATION BY DEVISE.

Alienation by Special Custom.

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This is a very narrow title, confined to copyhold lands, and such customary estates as are holden in ancient demesne or in manors of a similar nature; which, being of a very peculiar kind, and originally only tenancies in pure or privileged villenage, were never alienable by deed; for as that might have tended to defeat the lord of his seigniory, it would have been a forfeiture of title.

The principal things personal, or chattel interests, that by custom vest in some particular persons, either by the local usage of some particular place, or by the almost universal usage of the kingdom, are.- -1. Heriots, where a lord of a manor, or other chief lord, is entitled, by custom, to the best live beast or other chattel of which a tenant dies possessed; or, as is now more usual, a payment of money in lieu of the chattel. -2. Mortuaries, a sort of ecclesiastical heriot, being a customary gift claimed by and due to the minister in very many parishes on the death of his parishioners.- -3. Heir-looms, such goods and personal chattels as go by special custom to the heir along with the inheritance, and not to the executor of the last proprietor. Charters, deeds, court-rolls, and other evidences of the land, and monuments, &c., descend to the heir in the nature of heir-looms.

Alienation by Devise.

The last method of conveying property is by devise or disposition contained in a man's last will and testament; and the formalities necessary to a will are now made the same for all wills, whatever be the nature of the property with which they deal. The Wills Act, 7 Wm. IV. & 1 Vict., c. 26, prescribes the mode in which wills are to be made and executed, and the "Wills Act Amendment Act of 1852"* declares that the signature of a testator shall be valid if it be placed at, or after, or following, or under, or beside, or opposite to the end of a will, so that it shall be apparent on the face of the will that the testator intended to give effect by such his signature to the writing signed as his will; and no such will is to be affected by circumstances which the statute expressly mentions.

* 15 & 16 Vict., c. 24. For Succession Duty see 16 & 17 Vict., c. 51; amended by 22 & 23 Vict., c. 21.

Every will must be in writing, and signed at the foot or end of it by the testator, or by some other person, in his presence and by his direction; and the signature is to be made by the testator in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time, and such witnesses are to attest and subscribe the will in the presence of the testator and of each other; and if the testator cannot sign his name, he may depute another person to do so for him, or make his mark, and then acknowledge the same; and the fact of its having been read over to, and acknowledged by the testator to be his will and testament, should appear in the attestation-clause.

Marriage in all cases revokes a will, except where it is made in exercise of a power of appointment over property which would not, if unappointed, pass to the testator's own representatives.

A codicil is a supplement to a will containing anything which the testator wishes to add, or any explanation or revocation of what the will contains, and it must also be executed and attested in the same manner as a will.

A will does not take effect until the decease of the testator. A will may be revoked by any writing, executed in the same manner as a will, or by a subsequent will or codicil executed as before.

Under the new Act, a will is not void on account of the incompetency of the witness to prove the execution, and if any person shall attest the execution of a will to whom, or to whose wife or husband, any beneficial interest whatsoever shall be given, the person attesting will be a good witness, but the gift of such beneficial interest will be void. A creditor, however, may attest the will without losing his rights; and executors are competent witnesses to a will.*

* As to proving a will, see "Court of Probate," p. 212.

CHAPTER XIII.

OF CONVEYANCES.

Having explained the general Nature of Deeds, let us next consider Conveyances, their several species, together with their respective incidents, and the mode of operation used in the alienation of Real Estates,

Give a brief explanation of Conveyances.

Conveyances are of two kinds:-1. Conveyances at common law.- -2. Conveyances by statute law. The conveyances at common law are the following:-1. Feoffment.- -2. Gift.3. Grant.- 4. Lease.- -5. Exchange.-6. Partition.Release.- -8. Confirmation.

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-7.

-9. Surrender.-10. Assign

1. A Feoffment is derived from the verb to enfeoff, feoffare, or infeudare, to give one a feud-the gift of one person of any corporeal hereditament to another. The giver is called the feoffor, and the person enfeoffed is denominated the feoffee. To perfect the feoffment, livery of seisin was necessary. This livery of seisin was the pure feudal investiture or delivery of corporeal possession of the land or tenement, which was held absolutely necessary to complete the donation; for, with our Saxon ancestors, the delivery of a turf was a necessary solemnity to establish the conveyance of lands; but by 8 & 9 Vict., c. 106, it is enacted that after the 1st October, 1845, all corporeal tenements and hereditaments shall, as regards the conveyance of the immediate freehold thereof, be deemed to lie in grant as well as in livery.

2. The conveyance by gift, donatio, is properly applied to the creation of an estate tail, as feoffment is to that of an estate in

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