the invention of the conveyance by lease and release, now so universally in practice, as before observed. See Shep. Touch. 221. 223. Harg. Co. Lit. 48. (a). 2 Bl. Com. 337.339.

THE OPERATIVE WORDS IN THIS SPECIES OF CONVEYANCE BY LEASE AND RELEASE, ARÉ

WITNESSETH that for and in consideration, &c. HE the said (grantor) HATH granted, bargained, sold, aliened, released, and confirmed, AND by these presents DOTH grant, bargain, sell, alien, release, and confirm unto the said (purchaser,) (in his actual possession, &c.) and to his heirs and assigns, ALL, &c.*

* See p. 94.

CHAP. VI.

OF A RELEASE.

A DEED of release is an instrument whereby a man doth give or discharge the right or action which a man hath, or may have or claim against another man, or that which is his. Shep. Pr. 57. Shep. Touch. 320.

In respect to lands and tenements, it is the relinquishment of a man's right or interest therein to another, that hath the possession thereof, or some estate therein. Ibid.

And this, although it may be made by the words give, grant, or renounce, yet it is most commonly and properly made by these words: REMISE, RELEASE, and for ever QUIT CLAIM. Shep. Pr. 58. Touch. 320.

He that makes the release is called the releasor, and he to whom it is made the releasee. Shep. Touch. 320.

It is defined by some to be an instrument whereby estates, rights, titles, actions, and other things, be sometimes extinguished, sometimes transferred, sometimes abridged, and sometimes enlarged. Ibid.

For the better understanding hereof, it is necessary to shew, 1st, what things may be released, and how.

I. Lands, tenements, and hereditaments themselves may be given and transferred by release; and all rights and titles to lands may be extinguished, barred, or discharged by release; and a right to a freehold or inheritance, seignory or rent, in presenti vel futuro, may be released: 1. To the tenant of the freehold in deed or in law. 2. To him in remainder. him in reversion. 4. By a demandant to a vouchee.

3. To

5. By

a donor to a donee, after the donee hath discontinued. Shep. Pr. 59. Shep. Touch. 321.

All actions real, personal, and mixt, may also be discharged by release to him that is chargeable. Shep. Pr. 59. Also conditions annexed to estates, powers of revocation of uses, warranties, covenants, tenures, services, rents, commons, and other profits to be taken out of lands, may be discharged, extinguished, and determined by release to the tenant of the land. Shep. Pr. 59. Shep. Touch. 322.

Also possibilities of land, if they be near and common possibilities, although they be not grantable over to a stranger*, yet they may be released to him that hath the present estate of the land. Shep. Pr. 59. Shep. Touch. 322.

All debts, legacies, and other duties, may be discharged by release, before or after they become due; so a rent or annuity may be discharged before the day of payment; so a debt due by obligation. " Recognizances may, by apt words in a release, be discharged before they be forfeit, although they be records; so may judgments and executions also." Covenants and bonds, before they be broken, by apt words may be released.+ Shep. Pr. 59. Shep. Touch. 323.

II. In every good release in deed, howsoever it enure, these things are requisite:-1 That there be a good releasor and a good releasee.-2. That the deed be well sealed, delivered, &c.—3. There must be apt words in the deed to make it. Shep. Pr. 59. Shep. Touch. 323.

• But although they are not grantable at law to a stranger, yet they are assignable in equity for a valuable consideration. See p. 252. ↑ A general release of ALL CLAIMS AND DEMANDS, according to Lord Coke, is the best release to HIM to whom it is made. He says, that the word DEMANDS is the largest word in the law, except CLAIMS; and that a release of DEMANDS discharges all sorts of "actions, rights, and titles, conditions before or after breach, executions, appeals, rents of all kinds, covenants, recognizances, statutes, commons, and the like, then existing. Lit. § 508, 509. Co. Lit. 291.

If it tend and enure by way of enlargement of estate, then these things are further required to make the release good:

1. He that doth make the release must have such an estate in himself, as out of which such an estate may be derived and granted to the releasee, as is intended by the release : as, if he have the reversion in fee of the lands, he may release to a tenant for years, and thereby increase the tenant's estate to an estate for life or in tail; or he may pass his whole feesimple by the release.* Shep. Pr. 60. Touch. 324.

But care must be taken, that the premises in the lease be at least commensurate with those in the release, as the release is only of the right to or estate in the premises, of which the releasee is in actual possession, or has an actual vested estate; and consequently no more can pass. Watk. Pr. 184.

2. He to whom the release is made must have some estate in possession in deed or in law, or in reversion in deed, in his own or another's right, of the lands whereof the release is made, to be as a foundation for the release to stand upon: for a release, which must enure to enlarge an estate, cannot work without a possession joined with an estate; for there must be some privity of estate, between the releasor and releasee at the time of the release made; and therefore the releasee, must be donee or lessee for life, years, or tenant by statute-merchant, staple, or elegit; or at least he must be tenant at will, and in possession. Shep. Pr. 60. Touch. 324.

In every good release in deed, that doth tend and enure to give, discharge, or extinguish any right or title of lands, it is also further requisite, 1. that he that doth make it, hath, at the time of the release made, some right and title to release: as, where one doth deprive me of land, and I release to him all my right in the land; this is a good release. 2. Such words as will make a good release, in the cases that enure by way of enlargement of estate, will make a good release in these cases of a release of right: and note, that this kind of re

* See p. 309., supra.

lease is good without any limitation or specifying of the estate: for by a release of all a man's right, without saying, to have and to hold to him and his heirs, or the like, he that makes this release, in these cases is barred of his right for ever; for if I be seised of an estate in fee, for life or in tail, by wrong, and he that hath right, release to me all his right, although it be but for one hour, yet this is a good release for ever. Shep. Pr. 60. Touch. 331, 332.

There may be recitals, covenants, warranties, and other things inserted, as there be in other deeds, if there be occasion; but the deed is good without any such addition. Shep. Pr. 60.

AN ACQUITTANCE differs from A RELEASE, which always intends a deed under seal, in this: namely, that AN ACQUITTANCE is a discharge in writing, of a sum of money or other duty which ought to be paid or done: as, if one be bound to pay money on an obligation, or rent reserved upon a lease, or the like, and the party to whom the money or duty should be paid or due, upon the receipt thereof, or upon some other agreement between them, maketh a receipt or writing under his hand, witnessing that he is paid, or otherwise contented, and therefore doth acquit and discharge him of the same; this is such a discharge and bar in the law, that he cannot demand and recover the same again contrary thereunto, if the acquittance be shewn. Shep. Pr. 60. Touch. 348.

A RELEASE

FROM AN HEIR-AT-LAW TO A DEVISEE IN POSSESSION, UNDER A DEFECTIVE DEVISE.

WITNESSETH that for vesting the hereditaments and premises hereinafter described in the said (releasee) and his heirs, pursuant to the said testator's intentions*, and for and in consideration of the sum of 10s. of lawful money of Great Britain to the said (releasor,) in hand paid by the said

* All proper recitals must precede the testatum part of the deed.