CHAPTER THE NINETEENTH. OF TITLE BY ALIENATION. THE most usual and universal method of acquiring a title to real estates is that of alienation, conveyance, or purchase in its limited sense: under which may be comprised any method wherein estates are voluntarily resigned by one man, and accepted by another: whether that be effected by sale, gift, marriage, settlement, devise, or other transmission of property by the mutual consent of the parties. THIS means of taking estates, by alienation, is not of equal antiquity in the law of England with that of taking them by descent. For we may remember that, by the feodal lawa, a pure and genuine feud could not be transferred from one feudatory to another without the consent of the lord; lest thereby a feeble or suspicious tenant might have been substituted and imposed upon him to perform the feodal services, instead of one on whose abilities and fidelity he could, depend. Neither could the feudatory then subject the land to his debts; for, if he might, the feodal restraint of alicnation would have been easily frustrated and evaded b. And, as he could not aliene it in his life-time, so neither could he by will defeat the succession, by devising his feud to another family; nor even alter the course of it, by imposing particular limitations, or prescribing an unusual path of descent. Nor, in short, could he aliene the estate, even with the consent of the lord, unless he had also obtained the consent of his own next apparent, or presumptive heirs. And therefore it was very usual in ancient feoffments to express, that h Feud. 1. 1. t. 27. e Co. Litt. 94, Wright. 168. See pag. 57. 45 the alienation was made by consent of the heirs of the feof for or sometimes for the heir apparent himself to join with the feoffor in the grant d. And, on the other hand, as the feodal obligation was looked upon to be reciprocal, the 'lord could not aliene or transfer his signiory without the consent of his vasal for it was esteemed unreasonable to subject a feudatory to a new superior, with whom he might have a deadly enmity, without his own approbation; or even to transfer his fealty, without his being thoroughly apprized of it, that he might know with certainty to whom his renders and services were due, and be able to distinguish a lawful distress for rent from a hostile seising of his cattle by the lord of a neighbouring clane. This consent of the vasal was expressed by what was called attorningf or professing to become the tenant of the new lord: which doctrine of attornment was afterwards extended to all lessees for life or years. For if one bought an estate with any lease for life or years standing out thereon, and the lessee or tenant refused to attorn to the purchasor, and to become his tenant, the grant or contract was in most cases void, or at least incomplete 8: which was also an additional clog upon alienations. BUT by degrees this feodal severity is worn off; and experience hath shewn, that property best answers the purposes of civil life, especially in commercial countries, when its transfer and circulation are totally free and unrestrained. The road was cleared in the first place by a law of king Henry the first, which allowed a man to sell and dispose of lands which he himself had purchased; for over these he was thought to have a more extensive power, than over what had been transmitted to him in a course of descent from his ancestors 1: d Madox, Formul. Angl. no 316. 319. 427. e Gilb. Ten. 75. f The same doctrine and the same denomination prevailed in Bretagne ~possessiones in jurisdictionalibus non aliter apprehendi posse, quam per attournances et avirances, ut loqui solent; cum vasallus, ejurato prioris domini obsequio et fide, novo se sacramento novo item domino acquirenti obstringebat; idque jussu auctoris. D'Argentre Antiq. Consuet. Brit, apud Dufresne. i. 819, 520. g Litt. sec. 551. h Emptiones vel acquisitiones suas det cui magis velit. Terram autem quam ei parentes dederunt,non mittat extra cognationem suam, LL. Hen. I. c. 70. a doctrine which is countenanced by the feodal constitutions themselvesi: but he was not allowed to sell the whole of his own acquirements, so as totally to disinherit his children, any more than he was at liberty to aliene his paternal estate k. Afterwards a man seems to have been at liberty to part with all his own acquisitions, if he had previously purchased to him and his assigns by name; but, if his assigns were not specified in the purchase deed, he was not empowered to aliene1: and also he might part with one-fourth of the inheritance of his ancestors without the consent of his heir m. By the great charter of Henry III", no subinfeudation was permitted of part of the land, unless sufficient was left to answer the services due to the superior lord, which sufficiency was probably interpreted to be one half or moiety of the land. But these restrictions were in general removed by the statute of quia emptores P, whereby all persons, except the king's tenants in capite, were left at liberty to aliene all or any part of their lands at their own discretion 9. And even these tenants in capite, were by the statute 1 Edw. III. c. 12. permitted to aliene, on paying a fine to the king". By the temporary statutes 7 Hen. VII. c. 3. and 3 Hen. VIII. c. 4. all persons attending the king in his wars were allowed to aliene their lands without license, and were relieved from other feodal burdens. And, lastly, these very fines for alienations were, in all cases of freehold tenure, entirely abolished by the statute 12 Car. II. c. 24. As to the power of charging lands with the debts of the owner, this was introduced so early as statute Westm. 2. which subjected a moiety of the tenant's lands to executions, for debts recovered by law as the whole of them was likewise subjected to be pawned in a statute merchant by the statute de mercatoribus, i Feud. J. 2. t. 39. k Si questum tantum habuerit is, qui partem terrae suae donare voluerit, tune quidem hoc ei licet; sed non totum questum, quia non potest filium suum haeredem exhaere dare. Glanvil. I. 7. c. 1. 1 Mirr. c. 1. sec. 3. from the feodal law. m Mirr. ibid. n 9 Hen. III. c. 32. This is also borrowed q See pag. 72.91. o Dalrymple of feuds. 95, s 13 Edw. I. c. 18. p 18 Edw. I. c. 1. made the same year, and in a statute staple by statute 27 Edw. III. c. 9. and in other similar recognizances by statute 23 Hen. VIII. c. 6. And now, the whole of them is not only subject to be pawned for the debts of the owner, but likewise to be absolutely sold for the benefit of trade and commerce by the several statutes of bankruptcy. The restraint of devising lands by will, except in some places by particular custom, lasted longer; that not being totally removed, till the abolition of the military tenures. The doctrine of attornments continued still later than any of the rest, and became extremely troublesome, though many methods were invented to evade them; till at last, they were made no longer neces sary to complete the grant or conveyance, by statute 4 & 5 Ann. c. 16. nor shall, by statute 11 Geo. II. c. 19. the attornment of any tenant affect the possession of any lands, unless made with consent of the landlord, or to a mortgagee after the mortgage is forfeited, or by direction of a court of justice. In examining the nature of alienation, let us first inquire, briefly, who may aliene, and to whom; and then, more largely, how a man may aliene, or the several modes of conveyance. I. WHо may aliene, and to whom : or, in other words, who is capable of conveying and who of purchasing. And herein we must consider rather the incapacity, than capacity, of the several parties: for all persons in possession are prima facie capable both of conveying and purchasing, unless the law has laid them under any particular disabilities. But, if a man has only in him the right of either possession or property, he cannot convey it to any other, lest pretended titles might be granted to great men, whereby justice might be trodden down, and the weak oppresseds. Yet reversions and vested remainders may be granted; because the possession of the particular tenant is the possession of him in reversion or remainder; but contingencies, and mere possibilities, though they may be released, or devised by will, or may pass to the heir or executor, yet cannnot (it hath been said) be s Co. Litt. 214. assigned to a stranger, unless coupled with some present interest (1). PERSONS attainted of treason, felony, and praemunire, are incapable of conveying, from the time of the offence committed, provided attainder follows": for such convey ance by them may tend to defeat the king of his for- [291] feiture, or the lord of his escheat. But they may purchase for the benefit of the crown, or the lord of the fee, though they are disabled to hold: the lands so purchased, if after attainder, being subject to immediate forfeiture; if before, to escheat as well as forfeiture, according to the nature of the crime w. So also corporations, religious or others, may purchase lands; yet, unless they have a license to hold in mortmain, they cannot retain such purchase; but it shall be forfeited to the lord of the fee. IDIOTS and persons of nonsane memory, infants, and persons under duress, are not totally disabled either to convey or purchase, but sub modo only. For their conveyances and purchases are voidable, but not actually void. The king indeed, on behalf of an idiot, may avoid his grants or other acts. But it hath been said, that a non compos himself, though he be afterwards brought to a right mind, shall not be permitted to allege his own insanity in order to avoid such grant: for that no man shall be allowed to stultify himself, or plead his own disability. The progress of this notion is somewhat curious. In the time of Edward I, non compos was a sufficient plea to avoid a man's own bondy: and there is a writ in the register for the alienor himself to recover t Sheppard's touchstone. 238, 239. 322. 11 Mod. 152. 1 P. Wms. 574. Stra. 132. u Cos Litt, 42. w Ibid, 2. y Britton. c. 28. fol. 66. z fol. 228. See also Memorand. Scacch. 22 Edw. I. (prefixed to Maynard's year book Edw. II.) fol. 23. x Ibid. 247. (1) A covenant for a valuable consideration to settle or convey a possibility, when it arises, will be enforced in equity. Fonbl. Tr. of Eq. 202. |