estate, right, title, or interest of the said (purchaser,) his heirs or assigns, of, in, to, or concerning the said hereditaments and premises, or any of them, or any part thereof. [And also shall and will, at and upon the like request, and at the like costs and expense of the said (purchaser,) his heirs or assigns, and for the like or any other reasonable purpose or purposes, make out and deliver, or cause and procure to be made out and delivered, with all due and reasonable despatch, unto the said (purchaser,) his heirs or assigns, or his or their trustee or trustees, counsel, attorney, or agent, true and attested and other copies of all and singular, or any of the said deeds, muniments, writings, and evidences, or of any part or parts thereof respectively.] [And also shall and will from henceforth and in the mean time use, and take and cause to be used and taken, all due and proper care to preserve and keep the same deeds, muniments, writings, and evidences from being lost, destroyed, cancelled, or otherwise defaced or injured.] X. After the warranty or covenants for the title, comes the conclusion, which mentions the execution and date of the deed, or the time of its being given or executed, either expressly or by reference to some day and year before mentioned. 2 Black. Com. 304. And this conclusion is usually in the following words :— IN WITNESS whereof the parties to these presents have hereunto subscribed and set their hands and seals, the day and year first above written.* XI. After the reading of the deed to the parties, and which hath been shewn to be requisite for the making a good * Every deed well made must be written before the sealing and delivery of it; for if a man seal and deliver an empty piece of paper or parchment, although he may give commandment that an obligation or other matter shall be written on it, and this be done accordingly, yet this is no good deed. Co. Lit. 171. Perk. § 118, 119. Moore, 28. Hetley, 136, 137. Shep. Prec. 9. Shep. Touch. 55. deed, (vide p. 52 supra) comes the attestation or execution of it in the presence of witnesses. And the common form of this attestation had been, until very lately, "Sealed and delivered by the within-named in the presence of "without any attestation as to the signing, that not being considered as essential to the validity of a deed at common law, sealing and delivery alone being sufficient. See p. 59 supra. Perk. sec. 130. 2 Co. 5 (a). Co. Lit. 7 (a). 35 (b). And this although by the Statute of Frauds, 29 Car. 2. c. 3, all conveyances of lands and hereditaments must be in writing, and SIGNED by the parties making the same, or their agents thereunto lawfully authorised by writing. For notwithstanding that statute, it was the general opinion of the Bar until some late decisions, that the omission of the word SIGNED, in the attestation, was no objection, (see p. 59 supra); but since the cases of Wright v. Waterford, 17 Vez. 454, 4 Taunt. 213; Doe on the dem. of Mansfield v. Pearce, 2 Maul. & Sel. 576; Wright v. Barlow, 3 Maul. & Sel. 512, the point seems to have been settled, that SIGNING is now as necessary to the perfection of a deed, as SEALING.* Solicitors should, therefore, now in every case make the attestation "Signed, sealed, and delivered ;" and if this precaution was generally adopted, the old form would be forgotten, and the question never arise. Sug. Pow. 257. The memorandum of attestation may in general be in the following form: *The above decisions having excited great alarm in consequence of various titles under powers of appointment being liable to be disturbed upon the same objections, an act which received the royal assent on the 30th of July, 1814, (54 Geo. 3. c. 168.) was passed to render all deeds executed in pursuance of any power of appointment, previous to that day, of the same validity and effect as if a memorandum of attestation as to the signing had been subscribed by the witnesses, declaring that the attestation of the witnesses to such instruments, expressing the fact of sealing, or of seating and delivery, without expressing the fact of signing also, previous to the above day, shall not exclude the proof or the presumption of signature. first} SIGNED, SEALED, AND DELIVERED (being first? duly stamped) in the presence of us, And if there be any alteration, erasure, or interlining, made in any part of the deed before the delivery of it, although this will not hurt the deed (vide p. 62 supra) if the sense and intention of the parties can be clearly discerned by the words, yet in such cases it is essential to make a memorandum thereof upon the back of the deed, and to give the witnesses notice of it; for otherwise, if it be in any place material, as in the name of the grantor or grantors, in the limiting of the estate or the like, and especially if it be in a deed-poll, the deed is greatly suspicious. Co. Lit. 27, 225. Perk. § 125, 126, 127, 128, 155. Shep. Prec. 10. Shep. Touch. 55. 4 Cru. Dig. 496. Form of the Attestation where there are Interlineations. SIGNED, SEALED, AND DELIVERED by the within-named (grantor,) the words having been previously interlined [OR written over obliterations] between [OR obliterated in] the 5th, 6th, and 7th lines of the first skin of the within indenture [OR the word having been previously interlined between the words written on razures] [OR on a razure, in the 7th line of the third skin and the name thereof] in the presence of Attestation of the Execution of a Deed by a Blind Person. SIGNED, SEALED, AND DELIVERED by the within-named (grantor,) the same having been first carefully read over to him (he being blind,) in the presence of By a Person Deaf and Dumb. SIGNED, SEALED, AND DELIVERED by the within-named (grantor,) who is deaf and dumb, but capable of reading, and understanding writing, the same having been first carefully read over and understood by him, in the presence of By an Illiterate Person. SIGNED, SEALED, AND DELIVERED by the within-named (grantor,) the same having been first read over and explained to him in the pre sence of Attestation of a Deed executed under a Power of Attorney.* SIGNED, SEALED, AND DELIVERED by the within-named (attorney,) as the attorney of the within-named (grantor,) in the presence of Receipt for the Consideration-Money. LASTLY, it is always proper that a receipt for the purchase or consideration-money should be indorsed on the deed, and signed by the vendor; inasmuch as the acknowledgment of payment contained in the body of the deed is not conclusive evidence of the payment, unless great length of time has elapsed. See Thurle v. Maddison, Sty. 462. Coppin v. Coppin, 2 Pere. Wms. 290, 295. Goddard v. Compton, 1 Ch. Cas. 119. Fleetwood v. Templeman, Barn, Ch. Rep. 186. Bidlake v. Arundel, 1 Ch. Rep. 50. And the form of the receipt for the consideration or purchase-money may be as follows ;— I, the within-named (vendor,) do hereby acknowledge to have received on the day of the date of the within-written indenture, of and from the within-named (purchaser,) the sum of £. of lawful money of Great Britain, being the full consideration-money within-mentioned, to be paid by him to me for the sale and conveyance of the lands and hereditaments within described. Witness, &c. * The usual mode of delivering a deed by an attorney is to take it up and say," I deliver this as the act and deed of the within-named (grantor)" and note, that a purchaser cannot be obliged to accept a conveyance under a power of attorney, 2 Vez. Sen. 681, except on a conveyance from a corporation; for as a corporation cannot pass a freehold estate by any other means than livery and seizin, it necessarily follows that such livery and seizin can only be given through the me dium of an attorney. |