Warranty and Covenant against all Men and also for further Assurance Grant to include a Warranty and Covenant against the Party and all Claiming under him and for further Assurance within Seven Years Deliver to include a Warranty and Covenant against the Party and his Ancestors and all Claiming under that and for further Assurance within seven Years and divers Instances of this kind might be contrived by short Words to include Large Sentences Thus it was done by the Statute of Bigamis and this would shorten Deeds and abridge their Charge of Enrolling 4. That all Deeds to be Inrolled be Acknowledged before a Judge of Westminster-Hall Master of the Chancery as now or before two Justices of the Peace in the County and they to have Power to examine Feme Coverts to prevent the Charge of Travel and of Commissions to take Acknowledgments 5. That all such Deeds as are to be Inrolled be Inrolled either in the Courts at Westminster or in the Counties before the Clerk of the Peace of that County where the Landlies or in Cities according to the Stat. of 27. H. 8. This will prevent the needless multiplying of new Offices and the gaping of People after them and perform the Business according to the known and settled Usage already Established by Law without introducing Novelties more than need 6. That if the Land lye in several Counties the Inrollment at the Courts at Westminster to suffice If Inrolled in one County it may be sufficient for the rest only a short Abstract or Certificate thereof to be sent at the desire of the Party to the Clerk of the Peace of the other Counties subscribed by him to be Entred with the Clerk of the Peace of the other Counties where the Land slie 7. That no Deed be Inrolled after 〈◊〉 Months from the time of the Caption 8. That the Relation of the Inrollment of Deeds to bind or prevent mean Incumbranbrances relate only to the time of the Caption at farthest 9. That twice in every Year at least there be transmitted from the Office of Inrollments in Chancery Abstracts or Certificates of Inrollments to the several Clerks of the Peace of those respective Counties where the Lands lie under Seal and so from the Clerks of the Peace of the several Counties to the Clerk of the Inrollments in Chancery that they may be reciprocally Entred This to be done under a pecuniary Penalty but not to invalid the Inrollments 10. That some settled easie Fees may be Established by Act of Parliament for the Caption Inrollment and Certificates 11. That no Penalty lye upon any Party for not Inrolling his Deeds farther then by Law is Established already but only by Act of Parliament a considerable Advantage to him that Inrolls This will invite Men to do it voluntarily and in a little time will carry the greatest Course of Assurance in this Method without any Grievance or Inconvenience 12. That the Advantages propounded be such as these 1. That whatsoever Estate Reversion Remainder or Contingent Remainder or Uses a Man may barr by Fine or Common Recovery with single or double Voucher he may barr by a Deed enrolled except as to the Point of Nonclaimes Provision for Infants and Ideots 2. That a Deed Inrolled may supply the defect of Livery and Seisin and Attournment But not as to forfeiture of the Estate of him that makes it This is partly done already by Law 3. That Uses may be as well created and executed upon a Deed Inrolled as upon a Fine or Feoffment or Release It is True That by those Advantages and some others that may be added most of the Assurances in England will run this way and thereby 1. The Offices of Clerks of the Peace and Inrollments in Chancery will grow to be great and beneficial Offices 2. The Offices relating to Fines and Recoveries will sink very Low as the Prothonotaries the Chyrographers Custos brevium Clerk of the King's Silver Clerk of the Inrollments and the Practice of many Clerks that usually deal in Fines and Recoveries 3. The King's Fines upon Originals and the Commissioners for the Composition of Post-Fines will decay in time which will be a Loss to the King The Keeper of the Great Seal the Master of the Rolls and Cursitors and Lords of Liberties But to this I say 1. The swelling of these Offices may be corrected to the publick Benefit by making the Rates of their Fees lower 2. The Offices that will by this means be impaired may be considered if it be thought fit by some Allowances out of the Offices of Inrolments though the Officers of the Court of Wards found no such Provision for them And if some Counties were allotted to the Common-Pleas for Inrollments that might easily be applied and distributed so as to countervail the Loss 3. The Loss of Fines and Post-Fines may be abundantly recompenced by a very small Allowance upon every Deed inrolled and yet the Subject be a Gainer by it And as these small Difficulties may be easily recovered so these great Conveniencies would ensue 1. No Man would be compelled to Inroll his Deeds and yet every Man might take the Advantage of it that pleased 2. The old Course of Fines and Recoveries not taken away but left for every Man to use that would though a cheaper and readier Course of Assurances be substituted 3. Whereas now no Fine or Recovery can be had in Vacation time whereby many Men before they can settle their Lands by this means Entailes and Feme Coverts may be barred and settle their Estates as they have occasion 4. It would take away the Charges of Travel to London by Persons living remote the Charges of Commissions Dedimus potestatem Warrants of Attorney and all those incident Charges of Fines and Recoveries So that a Man that is necessitated to sell his Land though it be but an Acre cannot do it by Fine or Recovery under Fifty Shillings may be able by this means to perfect his Assurance for Ten Shillings 5. It will in few Years carry the whole Track and Current of Assurances in a way that may be open to all Men and yet without Compulsion to any 6. It will prevent those many Defects in Assurances by Fines and Recovery which consisting of so many Parts and passing through so many Hands are subject oftentimes to be Reversed It may be for the Loss or Mistake of an Original Writ or some Defect And thus far for Inrolling of Deeds 2 Touching Judgments and Statutes The Statute of 27. Eliz. hath provided in a good Measure for the Inrolling of Statutes But as for Judgments it is a Business of great difficulty how to Inroll them especially because it cannot 1. Be readily known where the Party lives or where his Land lies by the Ministers of that Court where the Judgment is given and so it will be difficult to transmit the same into the Countries where
A TREATISE SHEWING How Usefull Safe Reasonable and Beneficial the Inrolling Registring Of all Conveyances of Lands may be to the Inhabitants of this KINGDOM By a Person of Great Learning and Judgment LONDON Printed for Mat. Wotton at the Three Daggers near the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleetstreet 1694. A TREATISE Concerning Inrollment of DEEDS IN the Business in Agitation touching Inrolling of Deeds These things considerable 1. The Mischief propounded to be remedied 2. The Remedy to be applyed The Mischiefs at present to be remedied are 1. The great Deceit committed by Persons by secret Judgments Mortgages Conveyances and Settlements whereby Purchasers are oftentimes deceived and Creditors defeated And this the more considerable in England because indeed the great Inland-Trade we have is the Trade of Buying and Selling of Lands and the great Security that is ordinarily given to Creditors and Lenders of Money is by Security of Land 2. The Multitude of chargeable and difficult Suits in Law occasioned by Preconveyances secret Mortgages and other Incumbrances which probably would be avoided and lessened if all Mens Estates lay open to the View of others The Remedy propounded is by an Office of Inrollment or Registry of Conveyances In this as in all other Applications of Remedies to any Mischiefs these things must be considered 1. How and by what means the Remedy may be commensurate to the Mischief 2. Whether the Remedy or the Application thereof in such manner as it may be commensurate to the Mischief be feasible or not 3. Admit it be Then what Inconveniencies may otherwise be introduced by the Application of the Remedy 1. If the Inconveniencies introduced by it be greater than the Benefit it gives the Remedy is to rejected 2. It the Inconveniencies thereby occasioned be over-weighed by the Benefit Then it may be Entertained But with due Consideration or Provision that those Inconveniencies introduced by the Remedy may with as much Prudence as may be be obviated prevented removed or very much allayed by suitable Provisions against them The first of these Considerations namely the Application of the Remedy in a due Commensurateness to the Mischief must needs be by taking Care that there be no Room or Inlet for any such Deceit by secret Conveyances or Incumbrances of Estates For if any one Leak be left unstopt the Vessel will sink as well as if more were open And if any one Device be left unprovided for thither will fraudulent Persons betake themselves and get out of the Remedy intended Therefore 1. All Judgments Statutes and Recognizances must lye open to view either by Inrolling or Registring them because those charge Lands 2. All Trusts touching Estates must be Inrolled or Registred for now by the Power of Courts of Equity these do charge Lands and sometimes in the hands of the Fourth or Fifth Purchasor if there be proof of notice 3. All Mortgages as well forfeited as not forfeited Defeazances in Nature of Mortgages must be Inrolled 4. All Powers of Revocation and limitting of new Uses Powers of Letting or Charging Estates must be Registred or Inrolled for these may alter the Title of Lands and are sometimes contained in distinct Deeds from the Deed whereby the Estate is setled 5. All Declarations of Uses and Trusts upon Fines Recoveries and other Assurances 6. All Grants of Rents Commons Profits all Conditions and Reservations of Rents 7. All Leases for Years or Lives made by any Person either with Rent or without it 8. In brief All Feoffments Grants Releases Confirmations Wills Forfeitures Escheats Commons or whatsoever other Estate or Interest in them For if any of these be not Inrolled or Registred or some way rendred open to the view of every Person a Man may be cheated or deceived And what is odds whether a Man be deceived by a secret Mortgage or Judgment or by a secret Lease for Lives or Years or by a secret Settlement or Devise or Will And all these must be secret to him that hath no ready means to discover them The Remedy whereof is designed in this publick Registry And yet further If the Remedy be intended as large as the Disease this Registry must not only look forward but it must look backward viz. That all Estates and Incumbrances now in Being as well as those that shall be hereafter must be laid open to the View otherewise the Provision is not commensurate there being in all probability a Stock of latent Incumbrances and Charges upon Lands which may serve at least to deceive and cheat this present Age and the next also Therefore unless there be some Notification of present Incumbrances as well as future we but lay up a Security that it may be of use an Hundred Years hence and leave the present and intervening Ages in as bad if not worse Condition than we find them Therefore a Remedy commensurate to the Mischief must needs provide for the Registring all Estates and Interests and Charges of Lands and that as well for the time past as time to come otherwise the Plaister is too narrow for the Sore 2. The second Consideration is Whether this be possible to be done Indeed it is a fine thing in the Theory and Speculation and a Man that fixeth his Thoughts upon the good that might come by such an Expedient without troubling himself with the Difficulties that lie in the way to it may drive it on very earnestly but he that shall consider the Difficulty of it will easily see that it is but a Notion and Speculation and cannot be effected or reduced into practice at least not without immense Confusion The Difficulties that attend this Design are either such as relate to the Inrolling of Estates now in Being or secondly The Inrolling of Estates hereafter to made or granted or Thirdly Such Difficulties as relate to both 1. The Difficulties that attend the Inrolling of Estates now in Being or past these seem insuperable In order to the discovery hereof we must suppose that either every Man shall be at Liberty to Inroll or Register his Estate or it must be under this Penalty that if he fail herein he must lose his Estate If we suppose the former then every Man is still at Liberty as he was before and nothing is effected by it If the Latter viz That he shall lose if he do not Inroll the Estate he hath or which is all one it shall be in the power of him that Inrolls a Subsequent Title to make the former not Inrolled void Then either that Inrollment or Registry must be barely of his Claim or some Abstract of his Title or he must Inroll the Tenor of the Deed or Evidence by which he Claims If we shall suppose the former then these things will be Considerable First What if he doth in some things mistake his Claim It may be he thinks he has an Estate in Fee-Simple when it is but in Tail It may be an Estate Absolute when it is Conditional Certainly
he that Claims by an Abstract had need of a very good Counsel at his Elbow to give him sound and uncontroulable Advice in drawing it up otherwise he that hath a good Title may lose it for want of a right Abstract of his Title by which he Claims Surely therefore every Man that hath a good Title and can possibly come by the Deed or Evidence by which he Claims it will Inroll his Deed at large for fear he should omit any thing essential to his Title Secondly Or else it is intended that though he mistake his Title yet if he enter as much as he thinks fit it shall be sufficient to preserve his Estate And if this be intended the whole design of Registring and Inrolling will End in a publick Deceit and Insecurity when perchance in the Event the Estate or Interest Claimed doth materially and substantially vary from what is Registred Thirdly Again if such an uncertain Claim shall be allowed not made good by Deeds or Evidences this Office will breed more Disturbance in many Estates than any imaginable Deceits or Frauds besides can equal For any Man shall at a venture make what Claims and set up what Pretences he pleases to any Mans Estate in England and shall be admitted to Enrol them in the Registry and the Person injured shall be either remediless or driven to more Suits and Expences to vindicate his Title than now he is necessitated unto to discover a Fraud in a Seller It remains therefore necessary that whosoever will Inrole any thing in being he must produce some Authentick Deed or other Record to warrant what he would have Inrolled and then there must be Inrolled at least so much of the Deed or Evidence that concerns First The Parties Grantor and Grantee Secondly The things Granted Thirdly The Estate Granted Fourthly All those parts of the Deed or Evidence that have any Influence upon the Estate as Rent reserved Conditions Powers of Revocation of Alteration of Leasing the Trust c. and those other things that have an Influence upon the Estate and without all this done and truly done the Purchaser or Lender is as much in the Dark as before and Cheated under the Credit of a Publick Office Erected to prevent it This being the State of the Business in relation to Inrolling of things past there follows next those Difficulties that render the Design either Impossible or Fruitless 1. Many Persons that have Titles have them by Livery without Deed or cannot bring the Deed to the Office to be Registred or Inrolled because the Deed it self is not nor by Law cannot be in their Custody at least de facto is not in their Custody as they that Claim Remainders where the Custody of the Deed belongs to others those that Claim by Wills either concealed or in the Hands of Executors and many have lost their Deeds in the late Troubles and to compel Possessors especially Purchasors of Lands to discover the Deeds which possibly they have for the Security of their Title or to discover the defects of their own Assurances to make others Mens Title appear and this under a Penalty or Action were an unreasonable thing and would create a general insecurity of Purchasors If 44. Eliz. A. Conveyed his Land to B. and 12. Ja. 1. B. Conveyed it to C. and 3. Car. 1. C. conveyed it to D. and 20. Ca. 2. D. Conveyed it to E. must all these Conveyances be Inrolled or only the last If all must be Inrolled then if any one Mans Conveyance be omitted suppose it from A. to B. then the omission of the Inrollment thereof will give a Title to A. or his Heir to make a Claim to this Land if only that from the last Seller then is the Purchaser in the Dark still what Estates were in the antecedent Owners and how Derived and so the Design ineffectual to the end proposed 3. If all the mean Conveyances of Mens Estate should be Inrolled Westminster-Hall would not hold the Inrollments and the Charge thereof would be above two Millions of Money nay if we should suppose the present Estates of the present Owners of Lands in any one considerable County were to be Inrolled the Charge would be intollerable and the Bulk it self would be utterly useless Suppose in London 20000. Houses and each House to have but two Titles that is that of the Owners of the Inheritance and that of the present Lessee tho' some have many more concurrent and coincident Titles to recompence those that may have possibly less this would bring to the Inrollment Office 40000. Deeds the Inrollment of every Deed at least 10 s. would produce 20000 Pound and about 200. Volumes of Velum Books which would take up the Imployment of many Clerks and when the work was done the Volumes too vast and numerous to be made use of and what would be done then with the many Leases of Western Mannors which yet have many under Titles derived under them 4. But how shall these Deeds come to be Inrolled he that made them perchance is Dead or at lest will not come to acknowledge it and if every Man that brings a Deed should have it Inrolled without acknowledging it by him that made it any forged Deed may be Inrolled and Men in a little while may lose their Estates by the Countenance that a forged Deed shall receive by being Inrolled among the publick Records of the Office for the Officer can never examine the Truth or Reality of the Deed or if he could it would not be reasonable that Mens Estates should depend upon the Judgment of any Ignorant Clerk or Officer 2. As for the Inrollment of all Conveyances and Deeds for the time to come this labours under great Difficulties also though not so many and so great as the Inrollment of things past because here the Persons that make the Deeds may possibly come to acknowledge them before some Persons publickly intrusted as two Justices of the Peace or the Master of the Office yet this has also great Difficulties 1. Many Mens Estates are by Will where the Proprietors of the Estates have not the Custody of the Will to produce 2. How shall the Officer before whom the Will is produced if it be produced know whether the Will be true or forced or revoked since the Devisor is now Dead that made it and surely it can't be intended that every Man that makes his Will of Land shall Inroll it in his Life-time since he may often change revoke and alter it 3. Although it is a very great Inconvenience and fit to be remedied by Act of Parliament that many times in Courts of Equity Trusts are averred without and contrary to Deed yet certainly so long as that Usage is allowed all Trusts of Estates cannot be Inrolled because they be oftentimes in Averment and Proof without Writing and so do oftentimes the uses of Fines which as yet have influence into
the Land lies 2. If that were all known yet it might be hard that a Copy of a Judgment in Paper should be a sufficient Warrant to enter it with the Clerk of the Peace in the County But all the way that seems to be practical in this kind were for the Clerks of the several great Courts to extract out of the Rolls the Abstracts of the Recognizances and Judgments for four or five Years past or more and also for the time to come as they are entred and to digest them in Alphabet accorcording to the Surname of him that acknowledgeth them c. and so to preserve them for publick Inspection this might be easily done and a Sallary or Fee setled by Act of Parliament for the respective Offices employed therein Only there are these Inconveniences which must be remedied 1. The Retrospect of a Judgment to the beginginning of a Term though acknowledged it may be long after 2. The late Inrollment of Judgments confessed so that there is little appears of Record but only in private Remembrancers 3. The keeping of Paper Recognizances acknowledged in Courts for many Days and some Months without Inrolling them as they ought and yet by relation to the time of the Caption many times over-reach Men's Purchases and Securities These might be remedied by the Orders of several Courts without an Act of Parliament if strictly enjoyned and observed though a short Act would easily make the Remedy universal 3. And lastly Touching Wills the Difficulty will be very great to put them into better Order than they are at present abating some few things For the Devisor himself must not Inroll his Will for the Reasons before given and especially for that it is alterable every Hour and many times made in Extremity when there can be no authentick Officer to Receive or Attest it And when he is Dead the Will comes to the Hands of the Executors and it may be controvertible and if the Entry then of it by an Executor or one that pretends to it should render it Authentick it may prejudice the Just Right of others And on the other side oftentimes the Devisee of Lands hath not the Custody of the Will and it would be unreasonable that the Executor's Neglect should prejudice the Devisee's Interest I know not how the Case of Wills can be made much safer or better than it is at least unless the Insinuation thereof were under the Examination of Temporal Courts but that perchance would be thought too great a Charge Only it were well if some greater Solemnity were required by Law in Wills whereby Lands are devised for ever since the Stat. of 34. H. 8. more Questions not only of Law touching the Construction of Wills but also of Fact arise than in any five General Titles or Concerns of Lands besides As Whether a Will were made or not Whether revoked or not Whether the Party that made it were of a disposing Memory or not which multiplies Suits and makes great Uncertainties But an Act may be necessary to prefix a Time and Order for Claims to burned Houses in London and a Judicatory settled for the determining thereof summarily because otherwise possibly Latent Incumbrances may arise upon those that have been at great Charges in Building But it were far better that there might be an Act to quiet the Enjoyment of those that have built according to the Decrees and under the Rules already decreed because their Charge hath made the Improvement and saved it from the Forfeiture which would otherwise have happened therefore no Reason their Possession should be disturbed And besides all Persons that had any pretence of Claim either have made it and their Claims examined by a publick Judicatory or might have done in so long a space which they have neglected and it hath been their own faults Therefore this Case touching the burned Houses being particular in a particular Precinct and thus circumstantiated will not make any Parallel Case to Universal Registers FINIS Trusts Liberty Penalty Mistakes Abstracts â—eed at â—â—rge â—â—aims enâ—â—ed Suits increased Remainders Wills Purchasors Mean Conveyances Acknowledgment Wills Trusts See Act of Fraud and Perjuries Ubi Several Counties Judgments c. Compulsion Suite muâ—tiplied â—harges â—â—d Misâ—â—iefs â—gainst â—ompulâ—â—â—n 27. H. 8. Act of Frauds Words to mean more Stat. of Bigamis Feme Coverts Offices Inrollment at Westminster Time when Relations â—ecuniary â—enalty â—ees Common Recoverie and Fines Uses on Deed enroll'd Common-Pleas Vacation time Cheapness 27. Eliz. Stat. Fraud London Burnt