# An Essay on a Registry, for Titles of Lands/A Bill for Establishing a Registry for Titles of Lands

A
BILL
FOR
Establishing a REGISTRY
FOR
Titles of Lands.
WHereas by the Common-Law of this Realm, Lands, Tenements and Hereditaments were not to be transferred from one to another, but by Solemn Livery and Seisin, or Matter of Record.
And whereas by the Statute made in the 27th. Year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth, Entituled, An Act concerning Uses and Wills, a Bar- ​gain and Sale did become a Compleat Conveyance in the Law, whereby Lands and Tenements might be transferred from one to another in a clandestine manner, without Livery and Seisin, or Matter of Record. For prevention whereof, by another Statute made in the same 27th. Year of the late King Henry the Eighth, For Inrollment of Bargains and Sales: It was Enacted that from and after the last Day of July, which should be and since was in the Year of our Lord 1536. No Mannors, Lands, Tenements, or other Hereditaments should pass, alter or change from one to another, whereby any Estate of Inheritance of Freehold, should be made or take Effect in any Person or Persons, or any Use thereof to be made, by reason only of any Bargain and Sale thereof, except the same Bargain and Sale were made by Writing, Indented, Sealed and Inrolled in one of the Kings Courts of Record at Westminster, or else within the same County or Counties where the same Mannors, Lands or Tenements so bargained or sold, lye or ​be, before the Custos Rotulorum, and two Justices of the Peace, and the Clerk of the Peace of the same County or Counties; or two of them at the least, whereof the Clerk of the Peace to be one, and the same Inrollment to be had or made within six Months after the Date of the same Writings indented.
And whereas since the making the said Statutes, of late Years, there have been several inventions for Conveying of Estates of Inheritance of Freehold, by way of Lease and Release, and also for making of Bargains and Sales thereof for long Terms of Years, without Inrollment of such Conveyances; both which are a manifest Abuse of the said Statute concerning Uses and Wills, and an Evasion of the said Statute for Inrollments.
And whereas the said Conveyances by Lease and Release, and Bargains and Sales for long Terms of Years, being clandestine Conveyances, to be Executed any where, and invented contrary to the Intent and Meaning of the said Statutes, and all the anci​ient and avowed Laws and Customs of this Realm, are now of late Years become the most Usual aud Common Conveyances, for Conveying of Freehold Lands, whereby several Frauds and Abuses have been committed, and several Suits and Contentions have arisen thereupon, to the manifest hazarding the Titles of the Freehold Lands of this Kingdom, and the dishonour of the Laws thereof.
For remedying of the Mischeifs aforesaid, by providing one certain Place, where all the Conveyances and Incumbrances herein after-mentioned, relating to Freehold Lands, may be Entered, in Order to the more easie and ready searching and finding out the same.
Be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled, and by the Authority of the same
This Blank is for the Constitution and Qualifications of the Register.
And be it Enacted, that the said Register so to be appointed as aforesaid, on or before the day of and all other succeeding Registers for ever then after, shall provide and keep within one of the Inns of Court, or some other place, in or near the Citys of London or West​minster, an Office of Registry for the purposes herein after mentioned: And shall provide and keep in the said Office several Register-Books, for Registring of Deeds and Writings, in manner herein after-mentioned; and also one or more Stamps, for stamping of the same Deeds and Writings, in manner also herein after-mentioned, the Counterfeiting of which said stamps shall be and is hereby made ———
And be it Enacted, that all Conveyances, Grants or Assignments of any Mannors, Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments of Inheritance of Freehold, within the Kingdom of England, or of any Rents issuing out of the same, or of any Leases, or Terms for Lives or Years to be made thereof, which at any time after the day of shall be duly sealed and executed for good and lawful Consideration, and shall after such sealing and executing thereof, be registred in one of the said Register-Books, shall in respect thereof have and be esteemed and taken to ​have the Priviledges and Preferences herein after-mentioned, that is to say, that such Conveyances, Grants or Assigments, from and after such Registring thereof, shall be good and effectual, according to the Purport and Contents thereof, against all other Conveyances, Grants or Assigments whatsoever, which after the said Day of shall be made of the same Mannors, Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments, and not Registered as aforesaid, Notwithstanding that such Conveyances, Grants or Assignments so omitted to be Registred, shall be prior in Date or Execution to the said Conveyances, Grants or Assignments, which shall be so registred.
Provided nevertheless that all such Conveyances, Grants or Assignments so omitted to be registred as aforesaid, shall notwithstanding such omission be good and effectual against the Grantors, or the Persons making the same, and all other Persons whatsoever, except the Persons claiming under the said Conveyances, Grants or Assignments, which shall be so Registred as aforesaid, as fully and effectually to all In​tents and Purposes, as if this Act had never been made.
And for preventing a double charge in Enrolling of Bargains aud Sales of Inheritance of Freehold, before the Entry thereof in the said Register-Books, Be it Enacted, That such an Entry made as aforesaid, of any Bargain and Sale of Inheritance of Freehold, at any time within six Months after the Date thereof, shall be deemed and taken to have, and is hereby made to have the force and effect of an Enrollment, within the said Statute for Enrollment of Bargains and Sales, as fully and effectually to all Intents and Purposes as if the same were inrolled in either of the said Courts of Record at Westminster, or with the Custos Rotulorum of the same County.
And whereas several Conveyances or Assignments may be made by indorsements upon former Deeds, Be it Enacted, that when any Conveyance, Grant or Assigment shall be duly Registred as aforesaid, and after such Registring thereof, there shall be any Grant, Conveyance or Assigment, Declara​tion of Trust or other Deed made by Endorsement thereon, that the Registring such Endorsement in one of the said Register-Books, and making a reference therein to the said former Deed on which the same was indorsed, shall be as good and effectual to all Intents and Purposes, as if the said former Deed were again Registred with the said Endorsement.
And whereas it may be Conceived to be sometimes prejudicial or inconvenient, to publish the Uses and Trusts to be declared of Lands, Be it Enacted, that where any Grants, Conveyances or Assignments shall be made of any such Mannors, Lands, Tenements, or Hereditaments as aforesaid, to any Uses, Intents or Purposes to be expressed in the same Deed, or any other Deed to which the same Deed shall refer, that the Registring of so much of such Conveyances, Grants or Assignments, by which the Legal Estate of the same Mannors, Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments, contained in the said Deed shall stand transferred, and certifying such Registring up​on the same Deed so in part registred, and also upon the other Deed to which the same so in part registred shall be made to refer, Shall be esteemed a Registring of the said Uses or Trusts within this Act, whereby to entitle the same Uses and Trusts to such preference as aforesaid, as fully and effectually to all intents and purposes, as if the same Uses or Trusts were registred at large, any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding.
And whereas Freehold Lands in England, are by several Acts of Parliament made liable to Executions on Judgments, Recognizances and Statutes, which being entered in several places, the Searches for the same are chargeable, and the finding of them difficult, to the further hazarding of the Titles of Lands, For remedy thereof Be it Enacted, that no Judgment, Recognizance or Statute, to be had or acknowledged at any time after the said day of shall bind or charge any Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments within the Kingdom of England, against any ​Purchasers or Mortgagees thereof, except such Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments, as the Defendants in such Judgments, or the Cognizors in such Recognizances and Statutes shall have on the day of the Registring thereof with the said Register in manner herein after-mentioned, That is to say, that for all Judgments, the Names of the Plaintiffs and Defendants therein, the Summs recovered thereby, and the Day of the Signing thereof by the Judge, or other Officer signing the same, Shall be Registred; and for all Recognizances and Statutes, the Names of the Cognizors and Cognizees therein, the Summs thereby acknowledged to be due, and the day of the Acknowledgment thereof Shall be Registred.
And be it Enacted, that no Devise by Will of any Lands or Tenements within the Kingdom of England, shall be allowed as good against any Purchasers or Mortgagees of the same Lands or Tenements, unless such Will, or so much thereof, whereby such Devise shall appear, shall be regi​stred in one of the said Register-Books, within six Months next after the death of the Testator, provided that after such Registring of such Will or Devise, the same shall take the Effect from the Death of the Testator.
And be it Enacted, That the said Register for the time being, or his sufficent Deputy in that behalf, shall from time to time, certifie the days of all and every the respective Registries therein before directed, upon some part of the Deeds or Writings so to be registred as aforesaid, by affixing the Stamp of the said Office thereunto, and signing the same. Which said Certificate shall be taken as Evidence of such Registries in all Courts of Record and elsewhere.
I cannot be so Arrogant, to dictate this Bill to the Legislative Power, but if what I have asserted be true, I hope the more Learned Gentlemen of the Law, who shall oppose this Remedy, ​will either provide a better, or agree this Motto (for proclaiming the Laws of England) upon every House in the Kingdom, NO ONE KNOWS THE OWNER: In which they will not be more ingenuous to their Profession, than the Athenians were to their Religion by that Inscription on the Altar, (TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.)
FINIS.