be either to his officers at the exchequer, or to his receiver in the country. And, strictly, the rent is demandable and payable before the time of sunset of the day whereon it is reserved, though perhaps not absolutely due till midnight.* 2 Bl. Com. 43.

If the lessor be seised in fee-simple, the proper rent should be reserved to him, "his heirs and assigns;" if he have only a chattle interest, to him, "his executors, administrators, and assigns." Though the best "Though the best way of reserving such rent is to reserve it generally, without expressing to whom; as "yielding and paying, therefore, yearly and every year during the said term, the sum of, &c.;" as the law will give it to the person who shall be from time to time entitled to the immediate reversion, which the rent will always follow for as the rent is only a compensation for the lands, it shall go to him who shall have been entitled to the lands in case the compensation failed. Watk. Pr. 156.

Rents, charge or seck, may be created by fine, recovery†, bargain and sale, lease and release, covenant to stand seised, or grant; and may be limited to one in tail, with remainders over. Watk. Prin. 157.

They may be also released to the person seised of the lands; or conveyed to a stranger by grant, and that even to commence in futuro, or under the Statute of Uses; as a person may be seised of a rent to an use, which use will be immediately executed by the statute. So a fine or recovery may be of a rent. Watk. Prin. 158.

If a rent be limited to A B in tail, with remainder over

*If the lessor dies before sunset upon the day on which the rent is demandable, it is clearly settled that the rent unpaid is due to his heir, and not to his executor; but if he dies after sunset and before midnight, it seems to be the better opinion, that it shall go to the executor, and not to the heir. 1 P. Wms. 178.

That is, through the medium of a deed executed to lead the uses of such fine or recovery.

in fee, A, by suffering a recovery, may bar his issue, and the remainder over, and gain a clear and absolute fee in it: but if a rent be granted de novo to A in tail, without a remainder over, and A suffer a recovery, he shall only acquire a base fee, determinable on failure of his issue. Watk. Prin. 159.

Also a bequest of ground rents passes not only the reserved rent, but likewise the reversionary estate, of whatever nature or quality it may be. Kay v. Saxon, 1 Brown. Ch. Cas. 70.

BOOK II.

OF CONVEYANCES AND COMMON LAW ASSURANCES, AS THEY RELATE TO ESTATES.

HAVING shewn in the First Book the general nature and effect of deeds, the orderly parts thereof as observed in modern practice, and the different estates which may be conveyed or assured by deed, it now remains to treat of the several instruments which fall under the general denomination of DEEDS, in the following order: 1. Of a feoffment.

2. Of a bargain and sale.

3. Of a grant.

4. Of a gift.

5. Of a lease and release.

6. Of a release.

7. Of a confirmation.

8. Of a surrender.

9. Of an exchange.

10. Of a partition.

11. Of a defeazance.

12. Of a covenant to stand seised to uses.

13. Of a covenant to lead uses.

14. Of a revocation.

15. Of a lease.

16. Of an assignment.

17. Of a devise.

18. Of a fine.

19. Of a recovery.

20. Of miscellaneous deeds and assurances.

A FEOFFMENT (feoffamentum) is a substantive derived from the verb to enfeoff, feoffare or infeudare, to give one a feud; and,. therefore, feoffment is properly donatio feudi. Co. Lit. 9.

And a feoffment by deed is the gift or grant of honours, castles, manors, messuages, lands, houses, or other corporeal immoveable things of like nature, which be heritable to another in fee-simple; that is, to him and his heirs for ever, by the delivery of seisin and possession of the thing given. Shep. Prec. 24. Touch. 203.

The most proper words of making this are, give, grant, and enfeoff: and he that makes this feoffment is called the feoffor; and he to whom it is made, the feoffee. Ibid.

This mode of conveyance is the most ancient kind of conveyance, and the best and most excellent of all others, and in some respects doth excel the conveyance by fine or recovery; for it is of that nature and efficacy, by reason of the livery of seisin, evermore inseparably incident to it, that it cleareth all disseisins, abatements, intrusions, and other wrongful and defeasible titles, and reduceth the estate clearly to the feoffor, and through him to the feoffee, when the entry of the feoffor is lawful; which neither fine*,

* A feoffment differs materially from a fine: for, in notoriety of fact, the feoffment is supposed to be made openly upon the land, and the feoffee is immediately put into the possession; but a fine has nothing public except the proclamations; and, therefore, by the act of 4 Hen. 7. nonclaim runs only from the proclamations. 3 Atk. 140.

And to give operation to a fine as a bar by nonclaim, there must be not only proclamations, but the conuzors, or one of them, must have an

recovery, nor bargain and sale by deed indented and enrolled, will do, when the grantor is out of possession, viz. disseised: it is the entry preparatory to the feoffment, and not the feoffment as an assurance, which reduces the seisin. Shep. Prec. 25. Touch. 204. Watk. Prin. 164.

To make a feoffment good and valid, nothing is wanting but possession; and where the feoffor has possession, although it be ever so bare and naked, yet a freehold or fee-simple passes by it, by reason of the livery: a feoffment, therefore, by a person having no right of property in the lands, is good; because the moment he enters to give seisin, he gains the fee-simple in possession by wrong, (Watk. Prin. 163); or, as it might be more correctly expressed, by a formal and open act of disseisin. 1 Burr. 92. Poph. 39. Co. Lit. 366 b. 377 a.

And the feoffment not only passeth the present estate of the feoffor, but it also barreth and excludeth him of all present and future right, and possibility of right, to the thing which is so conveyed; insomuch that, if one have divers estates, all of them pass by his feoffment; and if he have any interest, rent, common, or the like, in, to, or out of the land, it is extinguished and gone by the feoffment. Shep. Touch. 204.

And further, it barreth the feoffor of all collateral benefits touching the land; as conditions, powers of revocation, writs of error, attaint, or the like; so that, if a man make an estate of his land, upon condition, or with power to revoke it, and after he make a feoffment of the land, by this he is barred for ever of taking advantage of the condition or power of revocation. Ibid.

estate of freehold at the time of levying the fine. And to avoid a fine with proclamations, there must be an entry on the lands for the express and declared purpose of avoiding the fine; and unless, upon such entry and claim, an action shall be commenced within one year next after making such entry or claim, and prosecuted with effect, the operation of the fine will not be avoided by the entry. Watk. Prin. Pres. ed. 164.