witness does Light. 1. ball... a dood; nor will a certified bopy of one warrant recording a fone reforded be admitted as evidence. May well bus: IN THE SEVENTEENTH YEAR OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 157 1792. fhall be conveyed from one to another, unless the conveyance be declared by writing, fealed, and delivered; nor fhall fuch conveyance be good against a purchafer for valuable confideration, not having notice thereof, or any creditor, How, when and where unless the fame writing be acknowledged by the party or parties who fhall have fuch deeds must be acfealed and delivered it, or be proved by three witneffes to be his, her, or their knowledged or proved, act, before the General Court, or the Court of that Diftrict, County, City, or and recorded. Corporation in which the land conveyed, or fome part thereof lieth, or in the manner herein after directed, within eight months after the time of fealing and delivering, and be lodged with the Clerk of fuch Court to be there recorded. at II. NO covenant or agreement made in confideration of marriage, fhall be good against a purchafer for valuable confideration, not having notice thereof, or any creditor, unless the fame covenant or agreement be acknowledged by the party bound thereby, or be proved by three witneffes, to be his, her, or their act, if land be charged, before the General Court, or the Court of that District or County in which the land or part thereof lieth, or if perfonal eftate only be fettled or covenanted, or agreed to be paid or fettled, before the Court of that Diftrict, County, City, or Corporation, in which fuch party fhall dwell, or in the manner herein after directed, within eight months after the covenant or agreement made, and be lodged with the Clerk of fuch Court, to be there recorded. a How, when and where ments in confideration III. WHEN any fuch deed or conveyance fhall be acknowledged or prov- Livery of feizen to be ed in Court, in order to their being recorded, the livery of feizin thereupon recorded with the deed. made, in fuch cases where the fame is by Law required, fhall in like manner. be acknowledged or proved, and fhall be recorded together with the deed or conveyance whereupon it shall be made. b IV. ALL bargains, fales, and other conveyances, whatsoever, of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, whether they be made for paffing any eftate of freehold, or inheritance, or for term of years, and all deeds of fettlement upon marriage, wherein either lands, flaves, money, or other perfonal thing shall be ttled or covenanted to be left, or paid at the death of the party or otherwife, and all deeds of truft and mortgages whatsoever, which fhall hereafter be made and executed, fhall be void as to all creditors and fubfequent purchasers, unless they fhall be acknowledged or proved, and recorded according to the directi ons of this Act; but the fame as between the parties and their heirs, fhall nevertheless be valid and binding. b V. IF the party who fhall fign and feal any fuch writing, refide not in Virginia, or in the District or County where the lands conveyed lie, the acknowledgment by fuch party, or the proof by the number of witneffes requifite, of the fealing and delivering of the writing, before any Court of Law, or the Mayor or other Chief Magiftrate of any City, Town, or Corporation of the County in which the party fhall dwell, certified by fuch Court, or Mayor, or Chief Magiftrate, in the manner fuch acts are ufually authenticated by them, and offered to the proper Court to be recorded within eighteen months after the fealing and delivering, where the party refides out of this Commonwealth, and within eight months after the fealing and delivery where the party refides within this Commonwealth, fhall be as effectual as if it had been in the laft mentioned Court. c All conveyances, fettle- gages of lands and chat How deeds may be acknowledged or proved fides out of the ftate, or the district or county wherein the lands lie where the grantor re empowered by commif VI. WHEN husband and wife have fealed and delivered a writing, pur- Deed by husband & wife porting to be a conveyance of any eftate or intereft, if the appear in Court, and acknowledged in court, being examined privily and apart from her husband, by one of the Judges there- or before two juftices of, fhall declare to him that she did freely and willingly feal and deliver the faid fion to receive her acwriting to be then fhewn and explained to her, and wishes not to retract it, and knowledgment, thall fhall before the faid Court acknowledge the faid writing, again fhewn to her, pals the eftate of the to be her act, or if before two Juftices of the Peace of that County in which the wife, if the refides withdwelleth, if her dwelling be in the United States of America, who may be empowered by commiffion, to be iffued by the Clerk of the Court wherein the (a) From 1785, ch. 62. ↑ Deeds partly proved in Gen. Court, may be either fully proved there, or fent to the court of the diftrict or county where the lands lie, for further proofs-fee Gen. Ct. law, acts '93, ch. 13. (b) 1748, ch. 1, fec. 2, 4. See act to prevent frauds, Sc. part of ad fec. which allows a conveyance of goods and chattels only to be recorded on proof of two witnesses; but I fuppofe that this fec.excepts deeds of truft and mortgages. (c) From 1785, ch. 62. By act of 1796, ch. 13, fes. 2, the power hereby given to justices of counties, is also extended to magiftrates of corporate towns. in the United States. To whom the commiffion must be directed if The refides out of the United States, Privy examinations of femes covert void if not recorded. In what manner writings ed. writing ought to be recorded, to examine her privily, and take her acknowledgment; the wife being examined privily and apart from her husband, by those commiffioners, shall declare that the willingly figned and fealed the faid writing, to be then fhewn and explained to her by them, and confenteth that it may be recorded, and the faid commiffioners fhall return with the commiffion, and thereunto annexed a certificate under their hands and feals of fuch privy examination by them, and of fuch declaration made, and confent yielded by her, in either cafe the faid writing, acknowledged alfo by the hufband, or proved by witneffes to be his act, and recorded together with fuch her privy examination and acknowledgment before the Court, or together with fuch commiffion and certificate, fhall not only be fufficient to convey or release any right of dower thereby intended to be conveyed or released, but be as effectual for every other purpole as if she were an unmarried woman. a VII. IF the dwelling of the wife be not in the United States of America, the commiffion to examine her privily and take her acknowledgment, fhall be directed to any two Judges or Juftices of any Court of Law, or to the Mayor, or other Chief Magiftrate of any City, Town, or Corporation of the Country in which the wife fhall dwell, and may be executed by them in the fame manner as a commiffion directed to two Juftices in the United States of America; and the certificate of the Judges or Juftices of fuch Court, or the certificate of fuch Mayor or Chief Magiftrate authenticated in the form, and with the folemnity by them used in other acts, shall be as effectual as the like certificate of the Juftices in the United States of America. And whereas it has always been adjudged, that when a deed has been acknowledged by a feme covert, and no record made of her privy examination, fuch deed is not binding on the feme or her heirs, it is therefore declared, that the Law herein fhall always be held according to the faid judgments; and the Clerks of the Courts before whom any deed of a feme covert ihall be acknowledged, fhall always hereafter record her privy examination. a VIII. THE Clerk of every Court fhall record all writings acknowledged acknowledged or proved or proved before fuch Court, or certified to have been acknowledged and provin courts thall be recorded in manner before prescribed, together with the commiffioas for privily examining and taking the acknowledgments of married women, and all endorsements on fuch writings, and plats, schedules and other papers thereto annexed, by entering them word for word in well bound books, to be carefully preferved, and afterwards re-deliver them to the parties entitled to them, and fhall moreover make a docket of all fuch writings, containing the dates thereof, and of the acknowledgments and probats, the names, furnames, and additions of the parties thereto in alphabetical order, and the quantities and fituations of land, numbers and names of flaves, and defcriptions of perfonal eftate conveyed thereby; and the Clerk of every District or County Court, fhall tranfmit fuch docket made by him to the Clerk of the General Court, on or before the first of October annually, to be recorded by him. a Memorials of fuch wri tings recorded in the diftrict & county courts, to be recorded in the general court. Perfons having estates tail, to ftand feized in fee fimple. Provifo refpecting fuch eftates as have or may become efcheatable for defe&t of blood. IX. EVERY eftate in lands or flaves, which on the feventh day of October, in the year of our Lord one thoufand feven hundred and feventy-fix, was an ef tate in fee tail, fhall be deemed from that time to have been, and from, thenceforward to continue an eftate in fee-fimple: And every eftate in lands, which fince hath been limited, or hereafter shall be limited, fo that as the Law aforetime was, fuch eftate would have been an eftate tail, fhall also be deemed to have been, and to continue an estate in fee-fimple. And all eftates which before the faid feventh day of October, one thousand feven hundred and feventy-fix, by the Law, if it remained unaltered, would have been eftates in fee-tail, and which now by virtue of this Act, are, and will be eftates in fee-fimple, fhall from that time and henceforth be difcharged of the conditions annexed thereto by the common Law, restraining alienations before the donee fhall have iffue, fo that the donees or perfons in whom the conditional fees vefted, or thall veit, had and fhall have the fame power over the fame eftates, as if they were pure and/ abfolute fees.a X. PROVIDED always, That all eftates in lands or flaves which have become, or fhall hereafter become efcheatable to the Commonwealth, by virtue of the Act, intituled, "An Act declaring tenants, of lands or flaves in tail, 10 hold the fame in fee-fimple," or of this Act, for detect of blood, fhall defcend, and be deemed to have defcended agreeable to the limitations of the deed or will creating fuch ettates. b (a) 1785, ch. Cz. (b) Mar 183, ch. 27. All Remaindero are utterly barred, whither created be= fore or since the Act: and that which would otherwise Contingent Remainder will not be wastowed to be and executory device in order to avoice the Act; In construed a constrived Tyler. 1. ball. 16.5t. words were added to the act of 176, in 85792, but & added not p.184-5: nothing to the force of the first Act: 26: |