refunded to and the person or persons claiming the same, have supported their the money claim in a court properly authorized to try the same, and obtained a the purchajudgment in his or their favour, the purchaser or purchasers shall be ser refunded out of the treasury of this state, the amount of sales of such property, in the same kind of payment as he or they may have made to the commissioners. sold A plat of act, be annexed affix to the com each tract to missioners' deeds. information to the com 136. Sec. V. A plat of each tract of land, which shall be in pursuance of this act; the before recited, or confiscation shall be made out by the aforesaid commissioners, who shall the same to each title, which shall be given or signed by them. 137. Sec. VI. It shall be the duty of the secretary of state and who, to give surveyor general, to give such information to the aforesaid commissioners as their respective offices may afford, for which services they missioners. shall be paid the usual office fees; and no person shall receive any emolument for any information whatever, except for showing the premises, and more fully identifying the property than can be obtained by information of record. An Act to amend an act, entitled “An Act, to establish a fund for the redemption of the public debt of this state.-This act passed Dec. 16, 1811. Vol. III. 167. 138. Sec. I. It shall not be lawful for the commissioners or All confiscated property any one or more of them to make sale of any confiscated or revert- must be reed property until they shall have reported the same to the legis- ported to the legislature lature of this state, and their decision or further direction be had before sale. thereon. sioners must advertise the three months 139. Sec. II. That the said commissioners of confiscated and re- Commisverted property shall in all cases where property may come to their knowledge, make report of the same to the next succeeding legisla- property ture, after having given notice in one of the public gazettes of the before recities of Augusta and Savannah, with a full description of such proporting it. perty so to be by them reported, at least three months previous to the meeting of the same. re compensa tion of com missioners and the share 140. Sec. III. On the amount of all sales hereafter made by the In what the said commissioners, they shall be entitled to, and receive their two and a half per cent. payable in such certificates as shall be ceivable in payment for the same, and that all informers shall receive their per centum in the same. also By the resolution of Nov. 1814, [Vol. III. 1141,] the governor is requested to instruct the attorney and solicitor generals to take the most speedy and effectual measures to ensure the collection and payment into the treasury, of all the moneys due for confiscated and reverted property. And by resolution of Dec. 1820, [pamphlet 114,] the governor is requested to employ an agent in that business who is to report to the next session. of informers is to be paid, 108 Conveyances, time to be recorded. An Act to Prevent Fraudulent Deeds of Conveyances*—Passed March 7, 1755. Vol. I. 111. Whereas many inconveniencies may attend the want or neglect of recording in the public offices of this province all conveyances of lands, negroes, and other chattels, or mortgages of the same: 1. Sec. I. Be it enacted, that all conveyances of lands, tenements, negroes, and other chattels, or hereditaments whatsoever, or mortand in what gages of the same, that were made before the passing of this act, shall be registered in the register of the records' office of this province, within three months after the publishing of this act, except such as have been or may be hereafter executed in Europe, which shall be registered as directed by this act, within a twelve month and a day; and except such as have been or may be hereafter executed in the West India islands, or on the American continent, north of South Carolina, which shall be registered by this act within six months; and such as may be hereafter made within this province be registered within the space of sixty days from the date of the several deeds, conveyances, or mortgages; in failure of which, all such as are lawfully and regularly registered as aforesaid, shall be deemed, taken, and construed to be prior, and shall take place and be recoverable in law before any and every deed, conveyance, or mortgage, which has not been lawfully registered as above, any law, custom, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. And in order to discourage and deter all and every person and persons from making any fraudulent conveyances or mortgages; If fraudulent, 2. Sec. II. Be it enacted, that if any vender or mortgager of lands, and punish- tenements, negroes, or other chattels, or hereditaments, within this how detected ed. province, shall presume to execute a second or other deed of conveyance, or sale of the same lands, tenements, negroes, or other chattels, or hereditaments, other than the first vender of such lands, tenements, negroes, or other chattels, or hereditaments, or a second or other deed of mortgage, without having taken notice in the said deed of mortgage of the first or prior mortgage or mortgages with which the said lands, tenements, negroes, or other chattels or hereditaments, stand charged at the time of executing the said deed, all and every person and persons so offending, shall be tried and punished, and be subject to the like forfeitures and penalties as the laws of that part of Great Britain, called England, have provided against all such persons as shall execute deeds of mortgage without taking notice of all prior mortgages made. *A variety of points have been agitated in the courts as to the three earliest of these acts, involving the question whether certain parts of them are in force; and if so, to what extent? The decisions even in one circuit, it would be impossible to collect, and perhaps equally so to reconcile! As there are no laws more intimately connected with the rights of private property than those which prescribe the rules of conveyancing, and few therefore which each individual has more frequent occasion to know with exactness, the compiler was peculiarly anxious to exhibit none in this work but such as might be relied on as undoubtedly in force. But, unfortunately, such is the structure of our judicial system, (if it is not a solecism to call that a system, which has no head,) that acts or sections in force in one circuit, may not be, and probably are not, in force in some of the others. The only safe course, therefore, is to give them as they are. ments. 3. Sec. III. All wills and testaments conveying properties within Time and place of rethis province, that have been formerly made and not recorded in the cording wills former office, be registered in the register* of records' office of this or testaprovince, within three months after the passing of this act, except such as have been or may be made in Europe, all which shall be registered as aforesaid, within a twelve month and a day, otherwise they are deemed and construed to be void; and all wills and testaments hereafter to be made within this province shall be registered as above, within three months* from the death of the testator, in failure of which, the said wills or testaments shall be deemed and construed to be void and of no effect. &c. already deemed le 4. Sec. IV. All deeds of conveyances, mortgages, wills, or wri- Deeds, wills, tings, that have been regularly entered in the former office of record recorded, of this province, shall be deemed lawful to all intents and purposes, any thing in this act or any other act contained to the contrary notwithstanding. An Act to enable Feme-Couverts to convey their Estates, and for confirming and making_valid all conveyances and acknowledgments heretofore made by Feme-Couverts.-Passed April 24, 1760. Vol. I. 112. Whereas the usual method of conveying lands and tenements in England, by feme-couverts, is by fine or recovery, which methods have not been practised in any of his majesty's American colonies : And whereas, instead thereof, it has been customary in the conveyances of lands by husband and wife, for the wife to acknowledge her consent before a judge or justice, being first privately examined by the said judge or justice, whether she acknowledged the same voluntarily and freely: gal. &c. of lands, wife, or ac made valid. 5. Sec. I. Be it therefore enacted, That all alienations and con- Conveyances, veyances whatsoever, which have at any time heretofore in this pro- made by busvince been made, either by husband and wife, having jointly signed a band and deed of conveyance before witnesses, or by the acknowledgment of knowledged the wife of her consent to such a sale of lands and tenements, before by the wife, any of the then justices or magistrates, shall in such cases be valid in law, and good and effectual against the husband and wife, their heirs, and assigns, and against all other person or persons whatsoever claiming under the said husband and wife, or either of them, to all intents and purposes as if the same had been done by fine or recovery, or by any other way or means in the law. And whereas it is necessary to secure the property of future purchasers of lands and tenements, as well as to prevent husbands disposing without the consent of the wife, what of right did or would belong to them: And whereas also the method practised in England in these cases would prove exceedingly troublesome and very expensive to the inhabitants of this province : made and re hereafter. 6. Sec. II. Be it therefore enacted, That from and after the pass- How to be ing of this act, all conveyances of lands and tenements shall be made gistered by deed of bargain and sale, or by deed of lease and release, or by deed of feoffment, enrolled or registered in the secretary's office of this province, signed and sealed by the party conveying, before two or more witnesses, who shall likewise sign their names to the said deed; and where a feme-couvert has, or may have any right in part * The place, now the clerk of the court of ordinary's office. The time, superseded by subsequent acts. How the wife shall band in the conveyance. or the whole of the lands and tenements to be conveyed, and the join the hus- said feme-couvert doth willingly consent to part with her right, by becoming a party with her husband in the sale of such lands and tenements, in such cases as these, the said feme-couvert shall become a party with her husband in the said deed of conveyance, and sign and seal the same before the chief justice, or assistant judges, or one of his majesty's justices of the peace, for the parish where such contracts shall be made, declaring before the said judge or justice that she has joined with her husband in the alienation of the said lands and tenements of her own free will and consent, without any compulsion or force used by her said husband to oblige her so to do; which declaration shall be made in the following words, or words to Relinquish the like effect: viz. "I, A. B. the wife of C. D. do declare, that I have freely, and without any compulsion, signed, sealed, and delivered the above instrument of writing, passed between D. E. and C. D.; and I do hereby renounce all title or claim of dower that I might claim or be entitled to after the death of C. D. my said husband, to or out of the lands or tenements therein conveyed. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal."* And the said judge or justice shall, and is hereby required to endorse upon the deed the acknowledgment of the same feme-couvert, made before Justice's fee. him, and to sign the same, and shall receive two shillings and sixpence sterling fee, for his endorsing and signing the same, and no ment of dower. Such convey. auces de in law. more. 7. Sec. III. All conveyances of lands and tenements, made and clared valid executed, and enrolled, and registered, according to the intent and meaning of this act, shall and are hereby declared valid in law, and good and effectual against the party conveying, or husband and wife, and their and every of their heirs and assigns, and against all other persons claiming by, from, or under them, or any of them, to all intents and purposes, as if the same had been done by fine or recovery, or by any other way or means, any laws, customs, or usages, to the contrary notwithstanding. Deeds of sale, &c. of real or perty, to be recorded in An Act to prevent fraudulent Mortgages† and Conveyances, and for making valid all Deeds and Conveyances heretofore made, with respect to any defect in the form and manner of making thereof, with certain restrictions.-Passed December 24, 1768. Vol. I. 113. Whereas notorious frauds have been committed by evil disposed and designing persons, who frequently mortgage and borrow money on security of lands and slaves, having before conveyed, sold, or mortgaged the same, and the recording of all deeds and conveyances of lands, tenements, negroes, and other chattels, will greatly tend to the securing the titles of the proprietors, or mortgagees, and prevent such frauds for the future; 8. Sec. I. Be it therefore enacted, That all and every deed and personal pro- deeds of sale, mortgages, or conveyances of any lands, tenements, negroes, or other goods and chattels, heretofore made in this province, and which shall be recorded in the secretary's office of this province, within six months after the passing of this act, except such as have been made and executed in any of the British islands, or in the secretary's office in ten days. *And see sec. 15. For the process of foreclosure, see Judiciary, sec. 16. As to the effect of mortgage, and other conveyances, in respect to the payment of taxes, see Tax sec. 15. a any of the other of the colonies on the continent of North America, which shall be recorded within nine months, and except also such as have been made and executed in Great Britain or Ireland, which shall be recorded within twelve months; and all deeds of sale, mortgages, conveyances,* made and executed within this province, from and after the first day of January next ensuing, being recorded as aforesaid within ten days after the execution thereof, shall be deemed, held, and taken as the first deed of sale, mortgage, or con. veyance, and shall be allowed, adjudged, and held valid in all courts of judicature within this province, any former or other sale, mortgage, or conveyance, being of the same lands, tenements, negroes, and other goods, and chattels, and not recorded as aforesaid, notwithstanding. proceeding are more mortgages 9. Sec. II. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That ne- Methed of vertheless, if it shall so happen there be more than one mortgage at where there the same time, made by any person or persons, to any person or persons, of the same lands and tenements, negroes, goods, or chattels, than one. the several late or under mortgagees, who shall have recorded their mortgages, his, her, or their heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, shall have power to redeem any former mortgage or mortgages, recorded as aforesaid, upon payment of the principal debt, interest, and cost of suit, to the prior mortgagee or mortgagees, his, her, or their heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, any thing contained to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding; and all and every person and persons who shall mortgage the same lands, tenements, negroes, goods, or chattels, a second time, the former mortgage thereof being in force, and not discharged, and shall not discover to the second mortgagee in writing under his or their hands, shall have no relief, power, or liberty of redemption whatsoever, in equity or otherwise, of and in the said after mortgage or mortgages. barred in 10. Sec. III. Provided also, and be it further enacted, That nothing Widow's in this act contained shall be construed, deemed, or extended to bar dower not any widow of any mortgager of lands or tenements, from her dower mortgaged and right in and to the said lands and tenements, who did not legally legally relinjoin with her husband in such mortgage, or otherwise lawfully bar or quished. exclude herself from such her dower or right. And to the end that no person may hereafter suffer any inconvenience in recording their title deeds, by exposing the defects thereof, lands, unless fects in deeris 11. Sec. IV. Be it further enacted and declared, That no deed of Formal defeoffment, bargain and sale, deed of gift, or other conveyance, of any not to vitiate lands or tenements whatsoever, heretofore made, shall be impeached them. or set aside in any courts of law or equity for want of attornment or livery and seisin, or enrolment, or for that such conveyance hath been made by way of assignment or endorsement on any other deed or conveyance without other ceremony, nor for any other defect in the form or in the manner of the execution of any such deeds or conveyances, or of the endorsements or assignments thereof, either in the first deed, or in any of the mesne conveyances derived therefrom: Provided nevertheless, That in case of the validity of such feoffment, Proviso. bargain and sale, deed of gift, or other conveyance of lands or tenements, shall be questioned, the legal and usual proofs shall be made that the rights were and would have been in the person or persons conveying, if such defects had not happened in the form of such deeds or conveyances, or in the manner of the execution of the same as aforesaid. . See further as to recording conveyances of personalty, Evidence, sec. 22. |