try, as the rule existed before in our own, and in the English law; and it applies to conveyances of #459 chattels real, as well as of freehold estates, "except leases for a term not exceeding three years. In Maryland, as in New-York, attesting witnesses are not requisite to the validity of a deed. In England, the practice of recording deeds is of local, and very limited application. It applies to the Bedford level tract, to the ridings of Yorkshire, and to the county of Middlesex. During the period of the English commonwealth, there was an effort to establish county registers for recording deeds throughout England. The ancient policy was in favour of the entire publicity of transfers of land, by the fine of record, the livery under the feoffment, the enrolment of a bargain and sale, and the attornment under the grant. But the ingenuity of conveyancers, and the general and natural disposition to withdraw settlements, and the domestic arrangements, from the idle curiosity of the public, have defeated that policy. In Scotland, the old feudal forms, and the sasine, or symbolical tradition of the land are retained. The "earth and stone," or "clap and happer," or "net and coble," the emblematical symbols of the field, or mill, or fishery, are delivered, with due solemnity, to the proxy of the purchaser. The instrument of sasine or infeftment reciting the transaction, is recorded; and that constitutes the title. • Jackson v. Burgott, 10 Johns. Rep. 457, and vide supra, p. 456. Wickes v. Caulk, 5 Harr. & Johns. 36. • Erskine's Inst. 208, sec. 36. Bell's Com. vol. i. 21. 674-680. Freehold, but not leasehold property, is recorded, in Scotland, in a public register; and the notarial instrument must be registered within sixty days, to render it effectual against purchasers and creditors. The English real property commissioners circulated, in 1829, a great number of questions on the expediency, extent, and value, of a general register, in England, of conveyances. In the summer of 1830, in their second report to the king, the commissioners recommended the establishment of a general registry of deeds and instruments relating to land, excepting leases not exceeding twenty years at rack *IV. Of the component parts of a deed. A deed consists of the names of the parties, the consideration for which the land was sold, the description of the subject granted, the quantity of interest conveyed, and, lastly, the conditions, reservations, and covenants, if any there be. The general rule is, that all parties to a deed are bound by the recitals therein, and they operate as an estoppel, working on the interest in the land, if it be a deed of conveyance, and binding both parties and privies in blood, in estate and in law." But one claiming land under a deed to which he was not a party, does not adopt the recitals of facts in an anterior deed which goes to make up his title." (1.) Of the form of the deed. "The Saxons, in their deeds," said Sir Henry Spelman, "observed no set form, but used honest and perspicuous words to express the thing intended with all brevity, yet not wanting the essential parts of a deed, as the names of the donor and donee, the consideration, the certainty of the thing given, the limitation of the estate, the reservation, and the names of the witnesses." This brevity and perspicuity, so much commended by rent. They considered, that such a provision would contribute greatly to the security of title, and the cheapness and facility of the transfer of lands; and it was warranted by the practice of several parts of the continent of Europe, as well as of Scotland, Ireland, and the United States. A majority of the commissioners were also for abolishing the doctrine of notice, in respect to the registry of conveyance, and were for declaring, that actual notice of an unregistered deed should not affect the priority of a registered deed for a valuable consideration, either at law or in equity! ■ Greenleaf's Treatise on the Law of Evidence, vol. i. sect. 23, where the whole subject is discussed. Supra, 261, n. Doe v. Shelton, 3 Ald. & Ellis, 265. 283. Nor will chancery admit the operation of a recital originating in mistake and untrue in fact. Stoughton v. Lynch, 2 Johnson. Ch. Rep. 222. Rich v. Atwater, 16 Conn. Rep. 409. Spelman's Works, by Bishop Gibson, 234. Spelman, has become quite lost, or but dimly perceived, in the cumbersome forms and precedents of the English system of conveyancing. The Saxons commenced their deeds according to the form of a modern bond, or of an indenture in the first person, as given by Littleton, by a general appeal to all men to whom the contract might be presented, for its truth and authenticity. Deeds were afterwards executed by both parties; and though that practice is now generally disused, the present English forms of conveyance, and the forms in New-York, and in those parts of the United States which adhere the most to the English practice, still retain the language of a mutual contract, executed by both parties; and each of them is supposed, by the fiction implied in the more formal parts of the indenture, to retain a copy. *461 *But the essential parts of a conveyance of land in fee are very brief, and require but few words. If a deed of feoffment, according to Lord Coke, be without premises, habendum, tenendum, reddendum, clause of warranty, &c., it is still a good deed, if it gives lands to another, and to his heirs, without saying more, provided it be sealed and delivered, and be accompanied with livery.d In the United States, generally, the form of a conveyance is very simple. It is usually by bargain and sale, and possession passes ex vi facti, under the authority of the local statute, without the necessity of livery of seisin, or reference to the statute of uses. In Delaware, Virginia, and Kentucky, deeds operate under the statute of Litt. sec. 372. • Co. Litt. 7, a. The statute of 8 and 9 Vict. ch. 119, made to facilitate the conveyance of real property, gives the shortest form of conveyance, along with one of the technical and redundant forms, and it declares that the short form shall be as effectual as the other. The act of ch. 124 of the same session gives in like manner a short form of a lease. uses, as they did in New-York prior to the first of January, 1830, when the revised statutes went into operation. In Massachusetts, under the provincial act of 9 Wm. III., a simple deed of conveyance, without any particular form, and without livery of seisin, was made effectual, provided the intention was clearly declared." I apprehend that a deed would be perfectly competent, in any part of the United States, to convey the fee, if it was to be to the following effect: "I, A. B., in consideration of one dollar to me paid by C. D., do bargain and sell (or, in New-York, grant) to C. D., and his heirs, (in New-York, Virginia, &c., the words, and his heirs, may be omitted,) the lot of land, (describe it,) witness my hand and seal, &c." But persons usually attach so much importance to the solemnity of forms, which bespeak care and reflection, and they feel such deep solicitude in matters that concern their valuable interests, to make "assurance doubly sure," that, generally, in important cases, the purchaser would rather be at the expense of exchanging a paper of such insignificance *of appearance, for a conveyance sur- *462 rounded by the usual outworks, and securing respect, and checking attacks, by the formality of its manner, the prolixity of its provisions, and the usual redundancy of its language. The English practice, and the New-York practice, down to the present time, have been in conformity with the opinion of Lord Coke, that it is not advisable to depart from the formal and orderly parts of a deed, which have been well considered and settled.c ■ Story, J., in Durant v. Ritchie, 4 Mason's Rep. 57. But deeds operating by way of raising a use, under the statute of uses, are also a valid mode of conveyance in the New-England states. French v. French, 3 N. H. Rep. 239. Parsons, Ch. J., 6 Mass. Rep. 32. b A similar deed held valid. 2 Dana's Ken. Rep. 23. In the North American Review for October, 1840, p. 313, there is given of an Egyptian deed, in the Greek language, and under seal, with a VOL. IV. a copy 38 (2.) Of the parties. The parties must be competent to contract, and truly and sufficiently described. A grant to the people of a county has been held, in New-York, to be void, because the statute enabling supervisors of counties to take conveyances of land, applied only to conveyances made to them by their official name. So, a grant to the inhabitants of a town not incorporated, is void. But con certificate of registry in a public office annexed, and executed in the year 106, B. C., or more than a century before the christian era. It was written on papyrus, and found deposited, in good preservation, in a tomb in upper Egypt, by the side of a mummy, (probably that of Nechutes the purchaser,) and contains the sale of a piece of land in the city of Thebes. It has the brevity and simplicity of the Saxon deeds so much commended by Spelman. It gives the names and titles of the sovereigns in whose time the instrument was executed, viz: Cleopatra, and Ptolemy, her son, surnamed Alexander. It describes with precision the ages, stature, and complexion, by way of identity, of each of the contracting parties, as for instance, Pamonthes, one of the male grantors," aged about 45, of middle stature, dark complexion, handsome person, bald, round-faced, and straight-nosed;" and Semmuthis, one of the female grant rs, "aged about 22 years, of middle size, yellow complexion, round-faced, flat-nosed, and of quiet demeanor." It then goes on to state that the four grantors (two brothers and two sisters,) have SOLD out of the piece of land belonging to them in the southern part of the Memnoneia, eight thousand cubits of vacant ground, one fourth part of the whole. The bounds are on the south by the royal street, on the north and east by the land of Pamonthes, and Bokon of Hermis, his brother, and the common laud of the city; on the west by the house of Tephis, the son of Chalomn; a canal running through the middle, leading from the river. These are the abutters on all sides. Nechutes the less, the son of Asos, aged about forty years, of middle stature, yellow complexion, cheerful countenance, long face, and straight nose, with a scar upon the middle of his forehead, has BOUGHT the same for one talent of brass money. The vendors being the acting salesmen, and warranters of the sale. Nechutes the purchaser has accepted the same." There seems to be no doubt of the authenticity and age of the instrument in the minds of the distinguished German, French, and English scholars, and profound antiquaries, who have studied the subject, or by the learned author of the article in the American Review, and it is one of the most curious, instructive, and interesting legal documents, that has been rescued from the ruins of remote antiquity. Jackson v. Corey, 8 Johnson's Rep. 385. Hornbeck v. Westbrook, 9 Johns. Rep. 73. |