# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 4/22nd Congress/1st Session/Chapter 112

Chap. CXII.—An Act for quieting possessions, enrolling conveyances, and securing the estates of purchasers within the District of Columbia.
Deeds, &c. of land in the District of Columbia.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That if any person or persons, seised or possessed of, or holding any estate or interest in any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, lying and being within the District of Columbia, shall execute and acknowledge a deed for the conveyance of such ​estate or interest, or for declaring or limiting any use or trust in and of the same, before any judge of a court of recordBefore whom to be acknowledged. and of law of the state and county in which such person or persons may be, or before any chancellor of any such state, or before any judge of the Supreme, circuit, district or territorial courts of the United States, or before any two justices of the peace of the state, district or territory and county in which such persons may be;Certificate. and such judge, chancellor or justices shall annex to such a deed, a certificate, under his or their hands, of the execution and acknowledgement thereof, and that the grantor or grantors was or were known to him or them, or that his, her or their identity had been satisfactorily proved, and the register, clerk or prothonotary of such court or county, shall also certify under his hand and the seal of his office, that the judge, chancellor, or justices, is or are, was or were such at the time of the execution and acknowledgement thereof;Deeds by persons in foreign countries. or if any such person or persons, seised or possessed as aforesaid, shall be in some foreign country, and shall execute and acknowledge any such deed before any judge or chancellor of any court, master or master extraordinary in chancery, or notary public, in such foreign country; and such execution and acknowledgment, and also the identity of the grantor or grantors shall be certified upon, or annexed to, such deed, under the hand and seal of any such judge, chancellor, master or master extraordinary, or notary public, and such deed,Where and when to be recorded. so executed, acknowledged and certified in the several and respective modes aforesaid, shall be recorded amongst the land records of the county of Washington, or the county of Alexandria in the District of Columbia, within six calendar months from the day of its date, if executed and acknowledged within the United States or the territories thereof, or within twelve calendar months from the day of its date, if executed and acknowledged in some foreign country; such deed shall be good and effectual for the purpose or purposes therein mentioned.
Deed to which feme covert is a party. Examination of feme.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That if any feme covert in whom such estate or interest may be, shall be a party with her husband, executing such deed, or shall only be relinquishing her right of dower, in or to such estate or interest, and the judge, chancellor, justices, master or master extraordinary in chancery, or notary public, aforesaid, before whom the same may be executed and acknowledged, shall make the contents thereof known to her, and shall examine her, out of the presence and hearing of her husband, whether she doth make her acknowledgment of the same voluntarily, and without being induced to do so by fear or threats of, or ill usage by her husband, or fear of his displeasure;Certificate. and such examination and acknowledgment, and also the identity of the party shall be certified in the mode prescribed in the first section of this act, according to the place or country where such feme covert shall be at the time of such examination and acknowledgment,Record. and such deed shall be recorded within the several and respective periods herein before mentioned; the same shall be good and available for the purposes therein mentioned, and thereby intended.
Clerks authorized to record.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the clerks of the circuit court of the District of Columbia for the counties of Washington and Alexandria, respectively, are hereby authorized to record any deed or conveyance, executed and authenticated agreeably to the provisions of this act.
Approved, May 31, 1832.